Elote Inspired Cauliflower and Salmon

Our first official recipe! And I guess the side dish that made me realize “okay…I actually need to make the blog” because so many people asked for the recipe for Elide’s elote inspired cauliflower, which she paired with salmon.

If you are unfamiliar, elote is also called “mexican street corn” at many restaurants and is basically just mayo on top of grilled corn (on or off the cob) with cotija cheese, chili powder and fresh squeezed lime.

If you’re unfamiliar with ussss, Elide is Mexican…and I am an elote die-hard fan. It was introduced to me by Elide, and I’ll never go back. So elote is frequent in this tiny household. So why not have just regular ol’ elote? Why have elote inspired cauliflower?

Well, we recently were out to dinner with friends at a pretty popular pizza restaurant in Cambridge, MA called Area Four and Elide and I ordered the cauliflower to share. We were expecting cauliflower in a ramekin or something, but instead were served an ENTIRE head of cauliflower and it was absolutely amazing.

I like ate the cauliflower and then basically forgot about it, making a mental note for when we go again to get the cauliflower, but Elide being the little chef that she is, decided she would just casually….make her own version! As one does!

So, for dinner on Monday, January 28, Elide made her own take on the head of cauliflower, and officially made it a play on elote, and served it with salmon, as we usually have salmon on Monday nights.

Elide’s version can be found below with ingredients and instructions.

Cauliflower Ingredients:

⁃ 1 whole cauliflower

⁃ 1 tbsp olive oil or Elide used 1 tbsp “I can’t believe it’s not butter” to make it “healthier”

⁃ 1 tsp cayenne 

⁃ 1 lime

⁃ 2 oz queso fresco

⁃ Mayo to taste

⁃ Tajin to taste (editor’s note: tajin is delicious and makes anything you put it on better, like fruit. It sounds weird, but tajin on pineapple will change you)

⁃ Cilantro

Cauliflower Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees 

2. Cut stem and leaves off of cauliflower, while keeping head in tact 

3. Wash cauliflower, pat dry 

4. Place cauliflower on cast iron skillet or foil lined baking sheet 

5. Put tbsp of olive oil or fake butter and “massage” head of cauliflower 

6. Sprinkle with salt 

7. Sprinkle cayenne pepper

8. Wrap entire baking sheet or skillet  with aluminum foil “tightly”

9. Bake in pre-heated oven for 45 min, cauliflower should be “soft” when you stick a knife in it, then remove tin foil cover, raise the oven to 400 degrees, and bake for another 15 minutes 

10. Remove from oven, squeeze lime, drizzle mayo, add queso fresco, tajin and cilantro 

11. Enjoy!

Salmon:

We buy our salmon frozen from Wegmans, thaw it while we’re at work and then Elide seared it in a hot pan for 2 minutes on one side then flipped it over and put it in the oven on 400 degrees for 6 minutes.

I have eaten a lot of salmon in my day…and the way Elide prepared it this time was maybe my favorite way yet, so give it a try.

It was Elide’s first time making the cauliflower and we both loved it! Let us know if you try it or have any questions!