Blue Cheese-Balsamic Roasted Cauliflower

I had no intentions of making anything blog-worthy for supper last night: I marinated a large salmon filet in orange juice, bourbon, soy sauce and honey, topped it with fresh dill and broiled. This is served quite often in my home. The particularly great part of supper was not this salmon, although it is always more than satisfying, but was this cauliflower dish I threw together in a rather haphazard manner.

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that everyone loves to hate. I’ll admit that it usually not presented in the best way. As a child, cauliflower was rarely served and when it was, it was typically mushy and slathered in some yellow-orange ‘cheese sauce’ or on vegetable trays with copious amounts of ranch dressing. When I decided on last night’s vegetable, I was almost hesitant to use the big white bunch staring up at me from the crisper but I washed it and went about dissecting it. From that point, I just threw together a few ingredients from my refrigerator and cupboard. The result was almost too good to let go to the oven – I ate a good 25% of it uncooked because it was just so darn tasty. The finished product had just enough creaminess, just enough crunch and the balsamic resulted in just the right amount of caramelization. Also, cauliflower is chock full of vitamin C, K, B6 and omega-3’s, among other vitamins and nutrients, so eat up!

Blue Cheese Balsamic Cauliflower

1 head cauliflower, washed and separated in florets
3 T olive oil
1/4 red onion, chopped
2 T or a good drizzling balsamic vinegar
1 T herbes de Provence
1/4 c blue cheese crumbles (blue cheese dressing would work well and lend creaminess)
1/4 c shredded Romano or Parmesan, optional.

Heat oven to 450F.

In a large bowl, toss cauliflower florets and chopped red onion with olive oil. Toss in herbes de Provence and blue cheese.

Drizzle in balsamic and stir to combine.

Place in 9×9 glass dish and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and top with Romano; return to oven for 5 additional minutes.

I regret to inform that this is the only picture I can provide