Reluctant Vegetarians

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Not From Scratch

While we pride ourselves in doing most of our recipes from scratch, there are times that we do take the easy road and use something that has already been prepared.

In this case, it’s only one item – the basil pesto. We had a jar of very tasty basil pesto and decided to use it in this recipe rather than make the pesto from scratch.

We don’t feel too bad about doing this, as this recipe really only has the four ingredients:

• a whole cauliflower
• pastry – vegetarian (which we did make from scratch for another recipe and just used what was left over)
• basil pesto (store-bought)
• a little olive oil

Gather the Ingredients

Roast the Cauliflower

We’re going to start by roasting the cauliflower before encasing it with the basil pesto and the pastry.

First, remove the leaves and any excess core.

Then, place the cauliflower on some parchment paper on a baking sheet (I used one of our pizza pans) and brush lightly with a little olive oil.

Roast the cauliflower in an oven pre-heated to 375°F (190°C, Gas Mark 5) for 35 minutes.

After 35 minutes, take the cauliflower out of the oven and set it aside to cool slightly while you roll out the pastry dough.

Roll Out the Pastry

While the cauliflower is cooling, roll out the pastry as thin as possible.

You’ll need enough to wrap it completely around the whole cauliflower, so the amount will differ depending on the size of the cauliflower.

The one we used was actually quite a small cauliflower.

I actually didn’t have quite enough rolled out, but I did have a little extra dough left over.

I rolled out that small bit and used it as a little patch to make I had enough to ensure the cauliflower was completed encased by the pastry.

Spread the Basil Pesto

Before putting the roasted cauliflower on the pastry, spread the pastry with about ¼ cup of the basil pesto.

Be sure to put a little bit of the pesto in the cavity created by the core of the cauliflower.

Wrap the Cauliflower and Bake

Now it’s time to wrap the cauliflower and bake it.

Carefully bring the pastry up around the cauliflower, pressing to mould it around the cauliflower without creating too many folds in the dough.

Turn the cauliflower right side up and place it on top of some parchment paper on a baking sheet.

At this point, you can brush the pastry with a little olive oil, if desired.

Note: You can use the same parchment paper and baking sheet you used to roast the cauliflower.

Time to Bake

Now it’s time to get your creation into the oven.

If you’ve left the oven on from roasting the cauliflower, that’s great.

If not, pre-heat the oven to 375°F (190°C, Gas Mark 5).

Bake the Cauliflower Wellington for 35-45 minutes, or until the pastry is nicely browned.

Remove from the oven when the pastry is nicely browned and let it cool for a bit so it’s a little easier to cut.

Serving Cauliflower Wellington

We made this Cauliflower Wellington with a small head of cauliflower.

As it was going to be the main entrée, we decided to cut it into four wedges.

Serving the Cauliflower Wellington with your favorite side dishes.

We also found that this goes well with cranberry sauce!

Calorie Count?

Determining the calorie count for this was a little difficult but we’ve done the best we can.

For the pesto we used the calorie count from the jar for a ¼ cup serving.

Here’s the ingredients from the pesto we used.

As we’ve said before, we prefer to make all our own ingredients from scratch. So, normally, we would have made our own pesto.

However, I just wanted to experiment, so I used some pesto we already had in the cupboard.

I also used some pastry dough I had already made, but I know what went into that – flour, salt, vegetable shortening, vinegar and an egg (one egg for enough pastry for 6 pie crusts), so it was fairly easy to figure out that calorie count.

Before I give you the final, per serving, calorie count, remember, no matter how to make pastry, it is NOT a diet food!

So, the per serving calorie count I was able to come up with, given that we consider this recipe to be 4 servings, is 437 kcal per serving.

Actually, better than I thought it’d be. Not too bad for the main entrée and we added fairly low-calorie sides.

Completed Dinner

Here’s our completed dinner of Cauliflower Wellington.

The printable recipe follows:

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