March is an important month for a lot of reasons: St. Patrick’s Day, National Employee Appreciation Day, National Women’s History Month, National Dietitian Day, as well as March Madness. However, March is also known as National Nutrition Month, an important month to highlight healthy food choices and create healthy habits to carry into the rest of the year.

A vegetable that often gets overlooked is cauliflower. It’s in the same family as broccoli and brussels sprouts and has lots of nutrients and benefits. It’s high in fiber, providing 3 grams in one cup. It’s also a great source of antioxidants, which protects your body from inflammation and slows the growth of cancer cells. Like broccoli, cauliflower is low in calories with only 25 calories per cup and 92% of its weight is made up of water. Other nutrients that can be found in cauliflower include vitamins C and K, which are important for having healthy bones..

If you’ve been to the frozen foods section at a grocery store lately, you’ve probably seen bags of frozen cauliflower rice. However, cauliflower can be used in a variety of ways that can be appreciated by the whole family. Try the following recipes, and let us know what you and the little ones think!

  1. Cauliflower rice
    • Cauliflower can be purchased bagged or you can rice it yourself at home with a cheese grater. If you choose to rice your own cauliflower, there is some prep work involved. Grab the stem of the cauliflower and use it as a handle to help grate it against the cheese grater on a kitchen countertop or table. Keep a wet paper towel on hand to wipe away any small bits of cauliflower that didn’t get trapped in the cheese grater. While cauliflower rice won’t replace regular white rice, it can be a tasty substitute every if you ever feel like having a lighter meal. Add a little oil to your pan and some seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder, etc.) as it’s cooking.
  2. Mashed cauliflower
    • To mash cauliflower, cut the stem off and cut the florets into medium-sized chunks and boil them in a large pot of water for 15 minutes. Once the pieces are tender, remove them and drain. Add 3 tablespoons of sour cream, 3 tablespoons of butter, ½ cup of parmesan cheese, a few cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper and stir into the cauliflower. You can also do this process in a high-speed blender and transfer to a bowl when it’s blended.
  3. Cauliflower pizza crust
    • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cut the cauliflowers into florets. Add the florets to a food processor until they look like cauliflower rice and then steam in a steamer basket over a pot of water. Drain and let the florets cool before using a towel to wring out any extra water. In a bowl, combine the drained cauliflower with mozzarella, parmesan, 2 eggs, and any other spices you want for your crust (salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, Italian seasoning, and/or red pepper flakes would be great!) Mix well and transfer to the middle of a pizza pan or baking sheet and form into a ball. Then flatten out to the shape of a pizza crust. Bake for 20 minutes or until slightly brown. Remove it from the oven, add your pizza toppings and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes.
  4. Cauliflower steak
    • Preheat your oven to 435 degrees and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and spray with olive oil. Remove the leaves and trim the bottom of the stem, but make sure to keep the stem on the cauliflower. Carefully slice the head into 1-inch thick slices. Some pieces might fall as you’re cutting, but they can be cooked as florets. You should get about 3 full steaks out of 1 head of cauliflower. Spray the florets and the steaks with oil and paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and turn the steak over. Spray with more oil and more of the seasoning and bake again for 10-15 more minutes or until slightly golden and fork tender.