Quinoa Risotto with Roasted Cauliflower

I didn't even try to get my kids to eat this. But sometimes there's cauliflower in the house and you just want to do something with it. I've been thinking about risotto for a while and decided to experiment. I found a couple recipes, including one for the roasted cauliflower risotto (that I loved for the sliced almonds) and a different one for quinoa risotto with different veggies. Here's what my hands came up with. It turned out very yummy. I think it'll go on the 'make again' list.

Quinoa Risotto with Roasted Cauliflower

Doesn't it look so pretty?! Fair warning: red wine
makes the risotto sort-of brownish

1 head of cauliflower

1/2 an onion, diced

2 Tbls butter

1 Tbls Better Than Bouillon

1 cup wine

4 cups water

A little bit of oil

1 cup raw sliced almonds

1-1/2 cups uncooked quinoa, rinsed

1 cup parmesan cheese

1-1/2 cups shredded cheese

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dice the cauliflower. Make all the flower parts no larger than 1"x1", slice the stalk parts even smaller but in a separate pile. Put the florets on a cookie sheet, pour some oil over them and mix it around. Add salt and pepper. Cook on the top rack of the oven for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the almonds on top and cook for about 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool while you work on the rest.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix up the water with the Better Than Bouillon in a measuring bowl for later. Melt butter in a 4qt pot. With the heat around medium, add the onion and cauliflower stalk pieces. Cook until the onion is wimpy. Add the quinoa and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the wine and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the wine is mostly dissolved. Pour in about a third of the water mixture and keep cooking. Cook about 5 minutes and then add another third. Stir pretty constantly and keep cooking. After you've added the last third, it'll take about 5-10 minutes for the mixture to get thicker, but it won't look like all the water is dissolved. The quinoa is cooked enough if it's pretty clear except for a little curl of grain.

Add both cheese and stir until they're well combined and melted. Dish up a bowlful and put a large scoop or two of the cauliflower and almonds on top. These amounts look like they'll make about 4-6 full sized main dish meals.