Cauliflower Fish Pie
I am regretting not posting this recipe sooner as the weather seems to have started to turn a bit of a corner and the sun is out. Pies are the perfect winter dish, warm, filling and comforting. Knowing Melbourne there will be a few more dreary days yet so this would be top of my list to cook.
It’s adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe that is topped with potatoes and made with smoked cod. By topping the pie with cauliflower puree is a opposed to potatoes, you are creating a much lower carbohydrate dish. I haven’t eliminated all white potatoes from my diet but I do most certainly limit them and have classified them more as a ‘treat’ food. Cauliflower and sweet potato are my main two substitutes for potato. Now before you get all judgey on the cauliflower substitution, I have seen two cauliflower haters polish off their portion of this pie. They didn’t even realise the sneaky substitution.
This recipe includes both butter and cream so is most certainly not dairy free. Most people that eat on a paleo diet eliminate all dairy but I find that I tolerate it quite well. But I am a bit fussy about the type of dairy I consume. Full fat, organic and unhomogenised as baseline, but I prefer dairy from grass fed Jersey cows as well. I like the Elgaars brand which is available in good health food shops or alternatively check out the dairy that is available at your local farmers market. You might be able to get your hands on some raw diary. Raw dairy is a bit of controversial subject as it is technically illegal in Australia, if you are interested in the topic of dairy Mark’s Daily Apple has a great post and Chris Kresser has a series on the benefits of raw dairy. At the end of the day, the decision on whether you do or don’t consume dairy and what sorts of dairy you consume have to be made for yourself. Dependent on your own risk tolerance and how your body responds to it.
Cauliflower Fish Pie
Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s recipe in ‘The Return of the Naked Chef’
Serves 6 hungry people
1 whole medium sized cauliflower
250ml cream – preferably jersey and raw
2 tablespoons of butter
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 blub fennel, finely diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 large handfuls of baby spinach
1 teaspoon of English mustard
400 grams fresh salmon, skinless and diced into 3cm chunks
300 grams peeled prawns
one small smoked trout or 2 small fillets of smoked trout, flaked into chunks
3 hardboiled eggs, cut into quarters
1 handful of cheddar cheese, preferably organic
handful each of parsley and basil, finely diced
2 lemons
salt and pepper
1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Remove florets from the cauliflower and steam over boiling water until tender. I like to steam my cauliflower and hard-boil my eggs in the water underneath at the same time.
3. Place the cooked cauliflower, one tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons of the cream, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.
4. In a large frypan, melt butter and fry of onions, fennel and carrots over a gentle heat until soft. Then add spinach, the remainder of the cream, mustard and bring to the boil and then switch off. Finally add in zest of the 2 lemons and your chopped herbs. Taste for seasoning.
5. In a large lasagne dish, arrange you chunks of salmon, prawns, hard boiled eggs and trout. Pour over your cream and vegetable mixture, making sure everything is still evenly distributed around the dish. Then squeeze over the juice from your two zested lemons.
6. Carefully spread your cauliflower over the top and then top that with the cheese.
7. Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and golden. Serve with green beans or a salad.
FODMAP adaptations – This recipe is fairly heavy in all things non-FODMAP friendly. My sister suffers from fructose malabsorption and ate this pie minus the onions and fennel. If you don’t tolerate dairy unfortunately, I don’t think removing the dairy and substituting other ingredients would work well for this dish. Sorry! But don’t worry my next post is dairy free.
4 Responses to “Cauliflower Fish Pie”
Turns out to be perfect timing for those of us in the other hemisphere, and it sound delicious! Thanks for sharing this!
Hi We’ve just bought fresh fish from the fish quay at Norths Shields UK, the first landing after the Xmas holiday followed by high seas. We’ve using cod, Haddock, natural smoked cod, salmon and prawns in the recipe.
My wife is dairy and wheat intolerant and avoiding spuds, so we’ve substituted lactose free milk and cream we’ve pre cooked the fish (microwave) in the milk and made a white sauce using the milk, cream and small amount of brown rice flour to thicken. For colour I’ve added a tsp of paprika to the sauce and topped the cauli with lacto free cheese. I substituted olive based spread for the butter.
It’s worked well and is delish. Thanks for posting.
Oh paprika would be a lovely addition. Such a lovely comforting dish. Glad you enjoyed it
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