Ok, I have this thing about vegetables. A lot of them are weird looking. My money's on the invading race of hostile aliens looking more like a stalk of Brussels Sprouts than a blob of green jelly or a super intelligent shade of any colour. It's not just vegetables, but fruits and plants themselves as well. I mean, have you ever really looked at a strawberry?
One of our oddest botanical treasures is cauliflower. It not only looks weird (and to me, the different coloured ones look even weirder), but smells strongly as well. It can also make those who eat it excrete funny smells. But it's all worth it because it is a yummy, versatile part of a low carb diet. Heck, even those eating high carb diets should consider the wonders of this veg.
Cauliflower is sort of like broccoli. Actually, they are the same species of plant. This surprised me because other than them being shaped sort of similarly and the smell issue (but different smells, really), they aren't that alike to me.
You might not like cauliflower. Or, I should say, you might think you don't like cauliflower. Now, don't I sound like your mum? "How will you know you don't like it with your new, sensitive, low carb taste buds if you don't try in in various dishes and with different preparation styles? Hmmm?" It is true, most vegetables will taste different to you as your body adjusts to low carb. Furthermore, we often have only had vegetables that were poorly prepared. Then in turn, we cook those vegetables in horrendous ways and make our kids learn to hate them.
I can't stand overcooked cauliflower. I have come to learn that that's pretty much all I've eaten before Atkins. Cauliflower that has had the life boiled out of it. Or raw cauliflower. Before I started this way of eating, I often said "I can only eat cauliflower raw or if it's covered in cheese." Now, I've found, I still like it raw or covered in cheese, but also fried, baked, steamed, or lightly boiled. It can replace potatoes or rice in recipes, but it's also a wonderful vegetable in its own right.
It's a winter vegetable. The season that it's at its peak will vary from country to country, but here in the UK, it's a mid-winter to early spring veg. I am going to be a bit heretical here. If you want to enjoy this veg (or almost any other veg) outside the season, by all means do, but get it frozen. Yes, yes, fresh is better, but old cauliflower from halfway around the world isn't fresh.
When preparing fresh cauliflower, remember that the outer leaves and any bits you throw away can stink up a kitchen if left to their own devices. It's best to empty your compost or bin soon after you prepare it.
You can eat it raw, in stir-fry, as an addition to ground beef (or a topper instead of potatoes for cottage or shepherd's pie), mashed up like potatoes, in curries and soups, smothered in cheese, or steamed with a bit of salt, pepper, and butter. I would say I now use this vegetable second only to tomatoes and spinach in frequency, and I have come to just love the flavour without the heavy cheese coating. One of the things I've found that's wonderful about it is that it doesn't really take that long to cook. I guess I always thought it did because most people I know overcook it (see above).
Cauliflower. Just don't think too much about the alien thing.
Nutritional Information You can find out what the USDA says about a cup of raw cauliflower here.
Photo CC Attribution 2.0 licence by Flickr user Sophiea
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