I’m not gonna lie, y’all, I struggled with this week’s blogpost. I had a lot of ideas, but none seemed worthy to follow Tips for Managing the Holiday Season.
So I pulled out one I had in reserve. This is on the IT vegetable…..cauliflower. I know it’s not sexy. It’s not wine from Italy or ham from Spain or cheese from from France. It’s a humble vegetable. Heck, it isn’t even colorful. So WHY is cauliflower the IT vegetable?? It’s in so many recipes right now; it’s unreal! I think cauliflower has gotten a bad wrap for a long time. It’s kind of stinky. It looks kind of like a science experiment; so what do you do with cauliflower?? Well, I’m going to tell you, but not before I extol the virtues of cauliflower.
Cauliflower is cruciferous vegetable; the same family as broccoli and cabbage. It is loaded with Vitamin C, potassium, folate, Vitamin K and Vitamin B6. I won’t bore you with why you need these things, but suffice it to say that you need them in your daily diet.
1 cup of cauliflower has about 30 calories, 2 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber and negligible fat. The fiber in cauliflower is raffinose, which isn’t completely digestible, and gives some people gas…so there’s that as a downside to our magic vegetable.
But let’s talk about cauliflower’s versatility and uses:
It’s a non-starchy vegetable, unlike potatoes or rice (is rice even a vegetable?)
It’s grain-free
It’s compliant with a Vegan diet
It has a low glycemic index
It’s like a chameleon - it can absorb flavors and be a ‘base’ for almost anything!
So let’s talk about what you can do with cauliflower! When I was a kid, I only got it boiled. (insert yuck-face here). In fact, back then, not too many people used steamers, so when I say boiled, I mean mush. Yuck! But today, people are using it to sub for all sorts carb-based dishes.
Don’t eat rice? ‘Rice’ your cauliflower and use it just as you would regular rice, with roasted veggies, curry or baked chicken.
Not sure if you want all the calories in mashed potatoes? Steam or boil cauliflower and add seasonings to it and mash it. If you’re lucky, your 7-year-old won’t know the difference.
Going vegan and want to eat steak? Slice a head of cauliflower into steaks and grill just like you would a slab of meat.
How about pizza? Have you seen the boon in cauliflower-based pizza crusts? There are recipes out there, but I buy mine frozen. It’s one of the few things that I buy pre-packaged. PS. We rarely eat pizza, so I don’t feel like this is a significant compromise. But I have seen recipes for cauliflower pizza crust and even cauliflower gnocchi!
The versatility of this humble vegetable is unsurpassed. The last IT vegetable was kale and I don’t think its popularity was as widespread. Kale tends to be tough and people with food texture issues tend to eschew it. (Because they can’t chew it. Ha! I crack myself up. ) But cauliflower appeals to the masses. If you truly don’t like the flavor, you can camouflage it with spices, or flavored olive oil, or sauce. AND it’s available at any grocery store.
So if you haven’t given cauliflower a try, I encourage you to try it. Google ‘cauliflower steak’ or ‘cauliflower rice’ or cauliflower gnocchi’. I guarantee you’ll get a bunch of hits.
And if you find something fabulous, let us know. Either use the Contact us button on the homepage or hit us up on FB or IG!
Happy ‘flowering!