And so the saga continued. And this time, I was determined to step it up a notch.

Attempt 3: A Cabbage with a College Education
What’s not to love about a vegetable that looks like a brain? So I decided to cook up some cauliflower, Tamar-style. She’s an advocate for boiling vegetables rather than steaming them (crisper is not always better), so I sawed up about half a head and dropped it in a pot of salty boiling water. And since I hadn’t done so well at thinking ahead up to this point, I also put the rest of the cauliflower (with some whole cloves of garlic) and some sweet potatoes in a 425 degree oven to roast.

When the boiling cauliflower was nice and tender, I ladled it out with a slotted spoon, and then used the same pot of water to cook some penne pasta. Then I mashed up the cauliflower with a generous handful of Parmesan cheese, some freshly ground pepper and the roasted garlic from the oven.  I added some of the starchy pasta water to turn to all into a sauce right before I drained the pasta. I don’t like to brag, but I think I got some extra points for tapping into Tamar’s fresh herb enthusiasm and topping it all with a bunch of fresh dill before serving.

The results were pretty good, simple but tasty. The components of the sauce did not combine quite as smoothly as I wanted them to, but no one can really complain about a big clump of melted cheese.
Tamar Score: 7

Attempt 4: It’s Not Over ‘Til the Skinny Yam Sings
I decided to end this experiment with a dinner party. Of course, it was just one friend who doesn’t particularly care about food, but still: the pressure was on.

Here’s a confession: I hate any recipe that calls for blending anything, because I’m lazy and I try to avoid washing the blender. That’s why all my soups are chunky and peasant-style. But since this was my chance to really bring it home, I picked a sweet potato soup as the first course for the dinner party. (I wanted to have one ace in the hole, so for the main course I made an old stand-by, a lemony couscous with chickpeas, but I chopped up the roasted cauliflower from the day before and threw it in for a nice Tamar touch).

I took the cold roasted sweet potatoes, seven skinny little guys, and peeled them and threw them in the blender. Then I added a little salt, about half a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika and a can of coconut milk, and blended it into a bright orange sludge. Right before dinner, I put it in a saucepan and heated it up, adding a little water as it got hotter to make it the right consistency. I served it up with chopped cilantro on top and a wedge of lime. I even served some sliced baguette with cilantro butter on the side.

Yowza! Sooo delicious, and not like anything I make on a regular basis. (It was so good that I forgot to take a photo, but rest assured that the sweet potatoes made it a beautiful vibrant color.) With high marks in all categories, I’m giving myself a…
Tamar Score: 10!