The combination of wanting a hearty vegetarian meal with a rich Hollandaise sauce resulted in this concoction. Some people will classify it as a dinner recipe, others will shake their heads. It’s filling, tangy and versatile. The Hollandaise sauce is a nice alternative to the heavy cheese sauce I normally make. I can easily see adding some chicken to it.
Prepping the baked vegetables
Everything is better tossed on olive oil and herbs.
First, I chopped up one sweet potato and four red potatoes. Because everything tastes and bakes better in olive oil, they were tossed with a generous amount of extra virgin. To the mix I added oregano, garlic salt and celery seed. You can add your own favorite spices. The tossed potatoes were baked, I actually used the convection setting, for about 45 minutes at 325. Because the red potatoes cook slower than the sweets, cut the reds in smaller cubes so they all cook evenly. I turned them over on the baking pan about half way through.
Steaming the cauliflower
Sliced potatoes ready for baking, seasoned with herbs and olive oil.
Since the meal was going to be heavy on the starch side, I steamed half a head of cauliflower. I was careful not to over cook and yield it mushy like I normally do. The cauliflower absorbs the flavor of the Hollandaise sauce, sweet potatoes add the sweetener and the red potatoes highlight the seasonings.
Lazy man’s Hollandaise sauce
Real raw ingredients for the Hollandaise, eggs, salt, cayenne.
Because I am essentially lazy, I found a Hollandaise sauce that didn’t require whisking for hours on end. I followed Easy Blender Hollandaise Sauce from Simple Recipes. I did add an extra egg to the recipe. It is pretty simple: blended egg yolks, salt, cayenne, lemon juice and a stick of melted butter.
Caution: Old Man Cooking
When the potatoes were done, I plopped them them on the plate, topped with the cauliflower and drizzled with the Hollandaise sauce. My son didn’t make one sarcastic remark and went back for seconds. That’s two thumbs up from him. More important, I didn’t gag on it and would make it again.
Baked and steamed vegetables
- 1 sweet potato
Blended Hollandaise sauce, looks like a smoothy
- 6 red potatoes
- 1/2 head of cauliflower
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- Herbs: salt, peppers, oregano, celery seed, fill in the blank.
Dice potatoes, toss in oil, add herbs, and bake at 325 for 45 minutes turning at least once.
Cut up and steam the cauliflower.
Hollandaise sauce
- 4 eggs yolks, save the whites to make the meringue pie later
- 1/8 tea spoon of cayenne
- 1/2 tea spoon salt
- 1 table spoon lemon juice
Baked and steamed vegetables with Hollandaise sauce, it needs some greenery.
- 1 stick melted butter
Follow the blender recipe, it’s pretty easy. It should feed four people, unless you have teenagers, then I would double the batch.
I note the approximate amounts of vegetables, spices, herbs, etc., but I do everything to taste and what is available. Let me know any variations you try that work.