Cauliflower question for you cooks
annalisbeth74
Posts: 328 Member
So far I have only used cauliflower in mac and cheese type dishes. Would it work for Italian-style stuff too? I'm just not sure about cauliflower with pasta sauce, but my pinterest page is just filled with pasta dishes today and it got me wondering.
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I haven't tried riced cauliflower in any Italian-style dishes, but I really like florets with a little pasta sauce and melted mozzarella. I bet it would be great in a dish with sausage or meatballs. The only thing I would caution is to cook it separately and then add the sauce, cheese, etc and just broil to melt it all together. I recently put a bag of frozen cauliflower in a crock-pot beef stew and it dissolved entirely. Made a great thickener, but it wasn't exactly what I was going for.4
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My favorite veg with pasta sauce is spaghetti squash. My favorite way to cook cauliflower is roasted. I think it would be ok with pasta sauce but would probably do bite sized florets versus riced. To me, iced cauliflower loses all it good cauliflower taste.2
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Love roasted cauliflower yummy kalyns kitchen has loads of cauliflower recipes you might find something new there
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I've been using cauliflower a lot this week. Cheese soup thickener, Pizza Crust base, riced. But I didn't use it for the Low carb lasagna I made. For that I used zucchini. It was delicious.2
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Not sure about using cauliflower for Italian - I haven't tried it. I typically use zucchini, eggplant, and/or spaghetti squash with Italian.
Do you like Indian food? Cauliflower is great in Indian cuisine, and I love it roasted with a mixture of yogurt and curry spices.1 -
I roast entire heads of cauliflower, which you might do with anchovies (whole tins) and loads of good olive oil. Put the cauliflower in a large pot, drizzle over olive oil, distribute anchovies over it, put on medium heat, leave for at least an hour. occasionally check and baste the cauliflower with the olive oil/melted anchovies.
as an alternative I make cauliflower or broccoli into a "twice cooked" side dish: boil cauliflower florets al dente. then sautee in olive oil with salt and a few flakes of chili. for serving mill loads of black pepper over it.
Both are fairly classic italian recipes.5 -
Ditto on roasting cauliflower. I had to put in some serious work when I first married Mr. Meatandpotatoes; roasted veggies were my best helpers. Cauliflower, onions, green beans, tomatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts .... they call gain taste and texture when roasted at high heat.
Zucchini is still a work in progress.2 -
zucchini benefits from high heat too. I often cut them like you would cut bits of wood off a stick (pencil cut, this is called, I think), make sure they're dry, then sautee them on very high heat in a skillet, with olive oil and salt (I put the salt into the olive oil, and sometimes also spices like whole cumin, chili flakes, which I first let brown, then add the zucchini.)
one trick I use to spice up any Indian type dish is to melt a tablespoon of butter or ghee in a small saucepan, add cumin seeds, a dry chili, let those brown, then chuck the whole thing over the Indian dish I'm cooking just before serving, and stir everything together, then press some lemon juice over it and serve. That's a Bengali trick I learned and it works with a variety of dishes. I even make tomato salad that way, also adding frozen kafir lime leaves and lots of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
this is called "chaunk" or "tadka"
often I will just sautee cauliflower florets with ginger, some dried chili and salt until tender, make a chaunk and mix that in
you can do the chaunk trick with egg as well, but since I don't eat that or cook that, I've never tried it
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In winter I often make Aligot, a recipe from the Aveyron, France. This is a potato/cheese/cream dish with a consistency between mash and a ragout, which I make with cauliflower instead of potato:
(bloemkool, rauw = raw cauliflower)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/2651536216916452 -
I love it roasted too...but recently discovered mashed cauliflower that is pretty close in texture to mashed potatoes. My kids disagree but after a year keto I have no idea what potatoes taste like anymore so its good enough for me! recipe is here: http://meljoulwan.com/2012/11/07/mashed-cauliflower/2
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In winter I often make Aligot, a recipe from the Aveyron, France. This is a potato/cheese/cream dish with a consistency between mash and a ragout, which I make with cauliflower instead of potato:
(bloemkool, rauw = raw cauliflower)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/265153621691645
Your link just takes me to My recipes, lol2 -
I've never used cauliflower for an italian dish, but I have used boiled cabbage leaves in place of lasagna noodles and it turned out great! Even my kids loved it.5
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nicsflyingcircus wrote: »In winter I often make Aligot, a recipe from the Aveyron, France. This is a potato/cheese/cream dish with a consistency between mash and a ragout, which I make with cauliflower instead of potato:
(bloemkool, rauw = raw cauliflower)
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/view/265153621691645
Your link just takes me to My recipes, lol
sorry about that:
blanch 250g cauliflower until tender
mash to a smooth texture using a stick blender
stir in 150g nice cheese in very small cubes or grated ( i use reblochon, because it's traditional, but you can use any hard cheese)
add 125 ml of creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste
this is enough for 3 - 4 people, it's incredibly filling.
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Cauli is awesome for Italian.... also if you want to take away the brassica taste just cook it in a milk & water mixture, 1 part milk to 4 parts water is fine. Takes any 'off' flavour away. This also works well if you want to thaw fish - do it in the same milk water ratio and NO fishy taste AT ALL.3
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canadjineh wrote: »Cauli is awesome for Italian.... also if you want to take away the brassica taste just cook it in a milk & water mixture, 1 part milk to 4 parts water is fine. Takes any 'off' flavour away. This also works well if you want to thaw fish - do it in the same milk water ratio and NO fishy taste AT ALL.
Che miracolo!
Really? That is a fantastic tip.... Where, o where have I been ????0 -
Oh, wow. Tons of great ideas!! Thank you all!0
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