Cauliflower ‘Polenta’ with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts
Cauliflower Polenta with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts is your new go-to side healthy side dish! It's a simple paleo and vegan dinner that's more flavorful than the real thing and super healthy for you.
I've been obsessed with turning cauliflower into things it's totally not.
Like polenta. Cauliflower makes great polenta. It's every bit as creamy and comforting as the real thing, but so much healthier for you.
You got to admit, regular polenta is pretty boring and bland unless you add mountains of butter, cream, and cheese to flavor it. Not that I have anything against butter, cream, and cheese, but I don't want to eat tons of it for dinner every night.
In this totally paleo + vegan version of polenta, the cauliflower is roasted with onions and garlic, so it has tons of naturally sweet, nutty, buttery flavor. Once it comes out of the oven, it goes for a spin in the food processor till it's perfectly creamy, just like real polenta.
Topped with some seared mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts this cauliflower polenta becomes a great, healthy, veggie-loaded dinner.
A few tips for making cauliflower polenta
You'll see that the recipe takes an hour to make, and that might seem like a lot if you want to make this after a long day at work. Most of that time though is hands-off while you're waiting for the cauliflower to roast. The hands-on time is only about 30 minutes, at most.
Here's how to save the most amount of time:
- Put the hazelnuts in the oven right away. There's no need to worry about waiting for the oven to heat up; the hazelnuts can start toasting while it's heating.
- Once you chop the cauliflower put it in the oven right away. Just like with the hazelnuts it can start roasting while the oven warms.
- Start the mushrooms sautéing next. While they're sizzling in the pan you can chop the onions, get the garlic ready and chop the hazelnuts.
- Next, clean everything up, pop the onions and garlic into the oven, then go chill out for a bit.
- Once the cauliflower is nice and dark roasted you'll be eating your cauliflower polenta in only 5 minutes.
Make ahead cauliflower polenta
You can make the cauliflower polenta up to a day in advance and then warm it gently over low heat with a small splash of water added to the pan.
You can also toast the hazelnuts in advance. I will often toast more than I need and keep extra on hand to toss into salads during the week.
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Other Great Cauliflower Swap Recipes:
- Paleo Cauliflower Fried Rice
- Spinach Lemon Cauliflower Rice Risotto
- Garlic Brown Butter Mashed Cauliflower
- Creamy Cauliflower Hummus
- Dreamy Vegan Cauliflower Alfredo
Cauliflower ‘Polenta' with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts
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Prep Time: 10 mins
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Cook Time: 1 hour 10 mins
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Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
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Yield: 2 servings 1x
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Category: Side Dish
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Cuisine: American
Description
Cauliflower ‘Polenta' with Mushrooms and Hazelnuts is your new go-to side healthy side dish! It's a simple paleo and vegan dinner that's more flavorful than the real thing and super healthy for you.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup hazelnuts
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, in their skin
- 1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- 3 cups chopped mushrooms (I like to use a mix of shiitake and button mushrooms)
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup water
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or sub parmesan cheese)
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
- Chopped parsley, to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the hazelnuts on a small baking tray and toast in the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until they are golden and fragrant. Once the hazelnuts are out of the oven, increase the oven temp to 400 degrees. Roughly chop the hazelnuts once they are cool enough to touch.
- Place the chopped cauliflower on the baking tray and drizzle with 1 1/2 teaspoons of the oil. Put it in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. (You don't need to wait for the hazelnuts to come out of the oven first.)
- Place the garlic in a small piece of aluminum foil, with a 1/2 teaspoon of oil, and wrap it in the foil.
- After a half hour, mix the onion into the cauliflower and add the foil-wrapped garlic to the baking sheet. Roast for another 20 minutes.
- While the cauliflower is roasting, prepare the mushrooms. Heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, until the they are dark brown, about 8 minutes.
- Place the roasted cauliflower, onions, and garlic (remove the skin from the garlic first) into a food processor. Add 1/3 cup of the water and the nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese and blend until it is creamy. Add more water, if needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
To serve:
- Divide the cauliflower polenta between 2 plates. Top with the mushrooms, chopped hazelnuts, and parsley.
Just curious, which ingredient(s) cause the carb amount to be so high? Thanks.
The cauliflower and hazelnuts have the most carbs in this recipe. 🙂
Hi can I use chickpeas instead of hazelnuts?
Sure!
This was insane.
I made your “polenta” with roasted veggies, salmon, and a balsamic reduction and the cauliflower was the best part (when does that happen??)!
★★★★★
I love it! So great when the veggies rule the plate!
Honestly better than regular polenta. My partner and I just started the Keto diet and we’re looking for something filling rather than just roasted veggies to go with our braised short ribs. This was perfect! We had to cut out the nuts and mushrooms and instead smothered the polenta with the au jus from our meat. I will be taking this recipe with me out of Keto for sure!
★★★★★
That makes me so happy to hear! Hooray!
Kristen,
Item 7 of the recipe says “add the mushrooms and sauce”. Maybe I’m blind, but which sauce are you referring to?
Hey Sandra,
No you’re not blind! That was a typo and I’m really happy you pointed it out. It was confusing!
I’ve corrected the recipe now so it should make a lot more sense. 🙂
Yummmm!!! Such a good idea and this looks delicious. I can’t wait to try it next time I get some cauliflower. Thanks for sharing!
No prob at all, Laura! Hope you love it as much as I do!
Oh, Kristen, I love this roasted cauliflower – polenta idea!
All that roasted veggies with addition of hazelnuts must taste delicious.
I’ll definitely make it these days…
Thanks so much, Jasmin! It’s so great turning veggies into things they’re not traditionally meant to be. 🙂
My mom just sent me this recipe and told me that she is making it for me for Easter! It sounds like the PERFECT dish for veggie-lovin’ me! 🙂
That’s awesome! Hooray for great moms!! 🙂
Just to report back, we had this today, and it was ABSOLUTELY wonderful! Thank you so much for the wonderful idea! It was a hit!
★★★★★
I’m so happy to hear it was a hit! Hooray!!
This is such a great idea!
Thanks, Justin!
This is gorgeous. It’s so earthy and woodsy looking – and I totally mean that as a compliment! It has all my favorite things and so creative! XO
Thank you so much! It even tastes earthy and woodsy. 🙂