Chia-cauli sauce

Following on from my recent chia experiments with the ‘summer chia shake’ I thought I would use the same principles in exploiting chia’s thickening qualities to create a savoury sauce. Although many of my recipes at Including cake are based around healthy sweet treats...I also like to dabble in savoury options.

This is a super simple summer sauce that takes less than 10 minutes to prepare…perfectly timed to coincide with your pasta preparation!

This sauce is fabulous served hot, but takes on a gelled consistency when cool so it’s best to eat quickly as a hot dish and not a cold salad (although that’s only my opinion). Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days and re-heated when required. I have not tried freezing this sauce.

Cauliflower used in a no-traditional sense seems to be the new in thing…cauliflower mash anyone? It’s also receiving a lot of attention from those on low carb diets. Using cauliflower as a base for a sauce is quite a new one for me but it works really well and its subtle flavouring  and light colouring makes it perfect for jazzing up with any spices you may want to add.

I kept it simple with homemade veg stock paste (so good to keep on hand in the fridge- I use it all the time), a little garlic and some nutritional yeast for a slight cheesy nutty flavour. I also sprinkled a little Cajun mix over the dish once served as you can see in the photos.

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Recipe: Chia-cauli sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped cauliflower (not firmly packed)
1 small onion- chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup veg stock
2- 3 tbs nutritional yeast
3 tbs white chia seeds

Method

Chop the cauliflower fairly finely and cook in a medium saucepan for 5- 10 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile fry the onion and garlic in a separate pan for a few minutes until soft.

Drain the cauliflower and add all ingredients to the pan, blend with a hand blender until smooth or desired consistency is reached.

Serve immediately over pasta.

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