Grits are as much a part of a Southern breakfast as biscuits and gravy. My mom has aways loved grits, and I like them occasionally. I just don’t want them everyday or even every week for that matter. One day here at Our Southern Odyssey we decided to try and make a grit substitute. But how? Well, we needed something white for the base. Cauliflower is white. Right! But how were we going to get it to taste like grits? We needed something to add to the cauliflower to make it earthly. What about sunflower seeds? That worked!!! Now we can have cauliflower grits anytime we like. They are great on a cold winter morning with ghee, maple syrup, cinnamon, and fruit. Toasted coconut is also very good with cauliflower grits. Why don’t you try them for yourself? Then let us know what you topped your cauliflower grits with.
Just a little background on grits. If you are not from the Southern United States you may have never had a bowl of grits. Grits are not only a breakfast food but also a lunch and dinner food as well. For breakfast, grits are a sweet treat, and topped with milk and sugar as well as the occasional fruit. For lunch and dinner grits can be used to replace rice or mashed potatoes and are topped with some form of meat and gravy. There are so many ways to serve them. That is one of the reasons grits are so popular in the South. Grits are made from corn (maize) that is ground into a coarse meal. And because grits are made from corn, and we no longer eat grains, we had to find a substitute.
To get the taste of grits we needed to find an ingredient with a similar texture to that of grits. Sunflower seeds make a great substitute for the corn texture found in grits. However a little sunflower seeds go along way, that is where the cauliflower comes in. Cauliflower makes up the base of the grits and the sunflower seeds are added for texture. Grits are naturally creamy and cauliflower when pulsed finely and cooked with coconut milk has that same creaminess.
When I was in high school I ate (corn) grits practically everyday for breakfast. Needless to say I ate them so much that I lost my liking for them. I eat cauliflower grits now; but, because, the flavor and texture is so similar to the corn grits, I still cannot eat a lot of them for breakfast. I do that a lot. I will find a food I really like and eat it until I don’t want to eat it again, at least not for a while anyway. However, I really never had grits for lunch or dinner and because of that I really like grits served with roast and gravy. So instead of roast with rice, we have cauliflower grits. They are really delicious by the way.
Instructions:
Making cauliflower grits is really simple. So simple you only need four ingredients. You will need one fresh cauliflower, sprouted sunflower seeds, pure coconut milk with no added fillers, and filtered water. There are also only a few kitchen tools that will need to be washed up afterwards. This includes one medium saucepan, a food processor, measuring cups, knife, cutting board, serving bowls and a spoon.
To begin measure your sprouted sunflower seeds and place them in the food processor and pulse until fine. Use the image in the step-by-step guide as a reference. We will need to pulse the sunflower seeds before the cauliflower. Because if we were to reverse the two we would need to wash and dry our food processor. Since cauliflower contains moisture, this would cause the sunflower seeds to stick to the side and not be pulsed. We would wind up with many full size sunflower seeds in our grits. Not good! This way by pulsing the sunflower seeds first we don’t need to wash the food processor before adding the cauliflower pieces to the food processor.
Add the seeds to the sauce pan. Remove the leaves of the cauliflower with a knife from the bottom of the cauliflower. After we remove the leaves we will have more of a stem on the cauliflower head. Remove some of the stem. That way we will also get a fresh cut on the stem as well. Instead of the old cut the farmer made when removing the cauliflower head from the field. Use the step-by-step guide as a reference if needed. Be sure to wash the cauliflower on top as well as the underneath. Pat the cauliflower dry.
Begin to cut the cauliflower into pieces so that they will fit into the food processor. Pulse until the cauliflower is the size of rice. Add the pulsed cauliflower to the sunflower seeds in the saucepan. Then add the pure coconut milk and water to the saucepan, mixing well.
Place the saucepan on the eye (burner) and turn the eye on medium heat. We will need to stir the mixture until it reaches a boil, about ten minutes. Continue to cook the grits after they have came to a boil on medium heat for five minutes. Make sure to stir the mixture often during this time to prevent sticking. Reduce the heat to medium low heat and cook for another fifteen minutes. Again keep stirring, we don’t want this to stick to the bottom of the pan. A burnt taste does not go well with grits. Now remove from the burner and pour into serving dishes. Allow them to cool for a moment, we don’t want to burn our mouth, they will be very hot. Enjoy!
Cauliflower grits for breakfast are delicious topped with ghee, maple syrup, cinnamon, toasted coconut flakes and any type of fruit (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, basically any fruit).
Provided below is the complete recipe. We hope you will enjoy this delicious recipe for yourself.
Cauliflower Grits
February 12, 2018
Grits are not only a breakfast food but also a lunch and dinner food as well. For breakfast grits are a sweet treat, and topped with milk and sugar as well as the occasional fruit. For lunch and dinner grits can be used to replace rice or mashed potatoes and are topped with some form of meat and gravy. There are so many ways to serve them. That is one of the reasons grits are so popular in the South.
Persons
6
Notes
What you will need:
Saucepan,
Food processor,
Measuring Cups,
Knife,
Cutting Board,
Spoon,
Serving Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 Organic Cauliflower (3 cups pulsed)
- 1 1/2 cups Organic Sprouted Sunflower Seeds - Pulsed
- 1 3/4 cups 100% Pure Coconut Milk
- 2 cups Filtered Water
Instructions
- Put the Sprouted Sunflower Seeds in food processor and pulse until fine
- Add the seeds to the saucepan
- Wash and dry the Cauliflower
- Cut the cauliflower into sections
- Place cauliflower in food processor and pulse until the size of rice
- Add cauliflower to the seed in the saucepan
- Add the coconut milk and water to the saucepan
- Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until mixture comes to a boil (about 10 minutes)
- Continue to cook on medium heat for 5 minutes stirring often
- Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 15 more minutes, remember to keep stirring
- Remove from burner and pour into serving dishes
- Suggested toppings for Cauliflower Grits:
- Ghee, Maple Syrup and any type of fruit.
- Toasted coconut
- Cinnamon
© 2024 This recipe is provided by Our Southern Odyssey
