Cauliflower Cheese Cakes

Lately I've been stumped about what to serve with what I'm serving...you know, side dishes. I just don't have enough recipes for sides and complementary dishes. So I explored and created and discovered. Here's the first of three side-dish recipes that I'll post, all three of them being fairly simple and not incredibly time consuming to make, just the way that side dishes should usually be.

My cousin shared this recipe with me, and I love the simplicity, the fact that it's vegetarian and that its main ingredient is a vegetable. What a winner! The original recipe (see source at bottom of page) is actually a gluten free dish, but since it calls for almond flour, an ingredient not typically found in my kitchen on a regular basis, and since I am not striving to be gluten free, I used regular all-purpose flour instead, and they turned out great. However, my cousin has made these with almond flour and swears they're great that way too, so if you are avoiding gluten, pretty simple to convert the recipe.

My cousin also recommended adding more cheese, a stance I fully support, and the change is reflected in the recipe below.

Cauliflower Cheese Cakes

1 small cauliflower head
3/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
2 Tbsp. flour
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. salt

Chop the cauliflower into small pieces and place in a steamer basket. Steam until cauliflower can very easily be pierced with a fork. In a large bowl, mash the cauliflower until it looks like mashed potatoes, then add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Heat a skillet on medium heat and coat with olive oil. Drop 1" balls of batter onto heated skillet, then gently press down to flatten slightly. Cook each side for about 3 minutes, or until lightly browned, re-oiling pan after each batch. Serve warm.

Source: http://365glutenfree.com/day-38/