Cauliflower and Spinach Topper Recipe

After looking up ways to serve cauliflower as finger foods to babies, I found and made alterations to a cauliflower bake from a website that has a few different cauliflower baby food recipes.

The biggest change was that I added a bunch of spinach and more Parmesan cheese and made it more of a topper than a lone finger food. It's actually quite yummy for adults too—I've tried it on a few different things and as a side.

Cauliflower and spinach as finger food

MAKING THE STUFF

Frozen spinach and cauliflower (12 oz. bags)

INGREDIENTS

• One 12 ounce bag of frozen cauliflower
• 2 tbsp. butter 
• ½ large yellow onion
• 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk*
• Half of a 12 ounce bag of frozen cut leaf spinach
• ¼ tsp. garlic powder
• ¼ tsp. basil
• black pepper to taste (I used about ⅛ to ¼ tsp.)
• ¼ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup Parmesan cheese

*Whole milk is only recommended if your child is at least 12 months old. You can try substituting in formula or breast milk if your child is younger.

NOTE: I prefer using frozen cauliflower and spinach because it is convenient and easy to store in case I don't cook with it right away. You can use fresh vegetables if you prefer. Just make sure that the spinach is properly chopped and the cauliflower is in small enough pieces so little ones can easily eat it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cook cauliflower until nice and tender (another advantage of these frozen bags is that they are made to be steamed in the microwave).

Meanwhile, melt butter in a pan on medium to low heat, and sauté onions.

Switch to low heat. Blend in flour and slowly add milk until you have a smooth mixture.

Add spinach (thawing beforehand is not necessary) and stir occasionally until it is soft and cooked. Turn the heat back up to medium-low if necessary. Stir in garlic powder, basil and pepper.

Spinach and friends on the stovetop

Drain cauliflower and place in a 7 x 11 inch casserole dish. Pour spinach mixture on top. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

Generous amounts of Parmesan cheese (with bread crumbs) sprinkled on top

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Nice and lightly browned on top

EATING THE STUFF
My kids have tried this between the ages of 12 months and 16 months and have not been huge fans of eating it directly as a finger food (probably because it was a creamier texture than they were used to handling). So I cooked up some rotini pasta that I knew they liked and added it as a topper. Not only did it work, but I had some cauliflower, spinach pasta myself. It was yummy.

Eating cauliflower spinach pasta with the kids

Winry (left) examines each noodle while Henry (right) prefers to just dig in, February 2016

The kids chow down, February 2016

I've also eaten it as a side dish and tried it once as a topper to a turkey burger patty. So I highly recommend topping a bunch of toddler-friendly and adult-friendly foods with this cauliflower and spinach mixture. Enjoy!

Cauliflower and spinach topping a turkey burger for Mommy (with cranberries sprinkled on top)