This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is Cauliflower. Mark Twain described it this way, “cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” I think that description suits it well as a member of the cabbage family. Cauliflower comes in three colors, white like the one pictured here, green and purple (turns green when cooked).
Cauliflower is composed of tiny florets in clusters on a stalk. The entire floret is called the Curd. When purchasing cauliflower look for one that is firm and these florets are tight and compact. Refrigerate it tightly wrapped for 3-5 days and cooked for 1-3 days.
You can eat your cauliflower raw or baked, broiled, boiled and sauteed. This pretty little vegetable is packed with Vitamin C and a good amount of iron. For more information on cauliflower you’ll need to finish reading the page of information where most of this came from. It’s an amazing book that everyone should own in your food library. The Deluxe Food Lover’s Companion (Deluxe Edition) by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst. It’s full of cooking tools and techniques, fruits, vegetables, meat cuts, fish and shellfish, breads and pasta, herbs and spices.
I’ve not worked with cauliflower very much. It’s a new addition to our table last year. I did manage to sneak it into a Pasta Surprise meal. Everyone thought it was meat. I am really enjoying roasting it with garlic and my son who loves Indian food, eats it all the time in many dishes.
How about you? How do you cook or serve cauliflower? Please add your recipes with Mr. Linky or in the comments section. Can’t wait for some new ideas! For all the “how to’s” of submitting and ALL of the PAST Friday Foodie Fix Secret Ingredients, please visit our Friday Foodie Fix page.
Next week’s Secret Ingredient is …………. Broccoli!
I got nada on this one, Diane. I've never even purchased cauliflower and have ony eaten it a few times. I should add it to my vision board so I'll start eating it next year. (Must find photo from a magazine.) I have eaten cauliflower before, but not often. Last time I ate it was when my friend cut it in small pieces and cooked it with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. It was sort of like popcorn shrimp and, of course, delicious!
Shirley
Shirley- I will tell you that cauliflower tastes like whatever you cook it with. It's really a blank slate. You should give Mindy's fritters a try. If you can't find a photo, print the one here.
I have steamed cauliflower and mashed it up with pesto, pepper, egg and almond meal… fried it up with a bit of coconut oil and made a cauliflower fritter. I splashed a bit of balsamic vinegar and served….My kids liked it, that makes it a winner for our family!
Mindy- Those sound amazing! I can't wait to give it a try. It's brilliant. I'm really working on getting my son to eat more vegetables. I'm going to play with this and see if it works. Thank you for sharing.
I had every intention of doing a cauliflower recipe this week, but it's still sitting in my frig. I linked to a cheese sauce recipe that I served on cauliflower recently. I love broccoli, but will be traveling next week so I don't know if I'll get anything done for that either. I probably have an old post though.
Linda- The cheese sauce looks so creamy and good. I'm pretending I'm eating it. Drooling on computer.
I def. have not made a cauliflower recipe…..I just never think of cauliflower when I am at the store, but have had it a lot in various Indian dishes and that way it is delicious!
Jenn- OK, now is your chance. There are some great recipes on here for you to try out. Let me know if you pick one of these or another.
This is my first time joining in on Friday Foodie Fix. I am so excited to have a great cauliflower recipe to contribute since people seem so stumped. It's super simple but so delicious – it's the potluck contribution people always ask for the recipe for, afterwards.
The link goes to a picture of the recipe made with romanesco but, as I explain in the post, it really is best made with cauliflower.
Scrumptious- Welcome to Friday Foodie Fix. I'm so glad you could join us. Thank you for sharing your cauliflower recipe. It looks great. I hope you'll come back again. Feel free to check out past week's. You can always add in new recipes too.
Cauliflower 'Couscous – this is a show stopper and so versatile!
Karen- You are amazing. Love this so much I played around with cauliflower this weekend. I'll be sharing my Shrimp Couscous this week. Thank you!
Darn, I have no cauliflower posts. But I use it a lot. At first I could not understand why people liked it. It is just so white, broccoli seemed much more interesting.
Now I roast it with other veggies, or coated in parmesan.
Steam it and puree it.
Make soup with cheddar.
Add it to Dal Bhat- red lentils seasoned with ginger, green chili, tamarind, mustard seeds, five spice. Topped with tomatoes.
I have noticed, when you can get it, cauliflower fresh from a farmer's market is sweeter than from the grocery store.
Linda- Wow, you really get busy with cauliflower. You should post some of those recipes.