I love to eat. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone who’s landed here on more than one occasion. Food is my jam, whether it’s healthy or junk food, I like it although one better than the other.

In fact, my love of food is what kickstarted my weight loss journey in the first place. More than one hundred pounds later and I have a newfound respect and love healthy vegan food. I’ve posted plenty of vegan salad recipes. Here, here and here, if you’re interested. I like to eat plenty of plant based vegan recipes but I also love a good vegan mac & cheese, TVP vegan fried chicken and I’ll bust out a package of Beyond Burgers for plenty of vegan junk food recipes.

So yeah, I like food.

Todays’ vegan recipe is one that might not look all that jazzy or fancy or all that complicated but it was easy to make and didn’t require a ton of effort on my part, which is something that I often need as someone who works for myself. This one requires two kitchen appliances: blender and oven.

It’s vegan, it’s easy and it’s delicious…what more do you need?

Kitchen Tools:

*Kitchen Knife
*Cutting board
*Blender (or food processor)
*Baking mat

Ingredients:

for the cauliflower:
*Cauliflower
*Lemon juice
*Sunflower oil
*Basil pesto (I used my basil & mint pesto that I made)

for the hummus:
*Eggplant
*Chickpeas (canned, drained & rinsed)
*Lemon zest & juice
*Tahini
*Water

Directions:

*Preheat oven to 200C (400F)

*Give the skin of your eggplant a good scrub and then cut in half. Place the eggplant halves flesh (flat) side down on a baking mat and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until the flesh is slightly golden and soft.

*Remove from oven and let cool.

*While the eggplant is baking, chop the cauliflower into bite-size pieces. You can actually cut into whatever size you want, but smaller pieces will cook faster.

*Place cauliflower on a baking mat and toss with the remaining ingredients until well coated. I used a glove so that I didn’t get pesto everywhere and because I wanted to take my time and make sure every crevice was touched by pesto.

*Place in oven and bake about 25 minutes or until fork tender. You can add more oil if you want very crispy cauliflower but I added about 6 grams for more than 600 grams of cauliflower.

*back to the hummus: Using a spoon to scoop the inside out of the eggplant. I put the blender bowl right on top of my kitchen scale and scooped it in so I could weigh at the same time. Add in half the chickpeas and the remaining ingredients but NOT all of the water. You want to keep some back because you might not need it. Use your best judgment to get the consistency you want.

*Season the remaining chickpeas and add them to the oven right on top of the cauliflower, cooking for about 5 minutes before you remove it all.

*And now it’s time to plate. Smear the hummus on the plate first and top with cauliflower and chickpeas, garnishing with more drops of oil free vegan pesto and totally optional vegan parmesan.

*You can also add any kind of bread you want to add a bit more heft to this meal. I had a few chunks of leftover bread but I thought it was better without.

This meal is so calorie friendly that you can take your love of food and enjoy dessert or a cocktail. …You’re welcome!

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