Tuesday, October 16, 2012

vegan mofo :: 50 shades of ... cauliflower?

Orange cauliflower – better than cheddar!

...With apologies to Snarky Vegan [whose Mofo theme is 50 Shades of Kale].

Some girls are dazzled by diamonds and fancy cars. I wear funky jewelry, drive a Subaru, and am swept off my feet by gorgeous produce. So I hope you'll forgive me for posting another cauliflower recipe during Vegan Mofo, but when I saw this cheddar-orange cauliflower winking at me in the produce aisle, I just had to have it.

Turns out this cauliflower is not just a pretty face. It contains 25% more vitamin A than the white stuff. The nuclear orange is not the result of cross-breeding, either; it comes from a mutant Canadian cauliflower. And forgive me again: I am guilty of hyperbole. As far as I know, there are only 4 shades of cauliflower: white, orange, purple, and green, aka Romanesco.

My casserole-style side, fresh from the oven 
I wanted to make something that would keep the color relatively intact, so I decided to make an easy gratin-style baked cauliflower. But I am drying to make my Creamy Cauliflower Soup with orange and even purple cauliflower. 

I'll announce the winner of the Vega/cookbook contest winner tomorrow or Wednesday – there's still time to enter! In the meantime,  Global Looking Glass magazine, a great, FREE up-and-coming animal rights magazine, interviewed me for their second issue. Check it out here. Enjoy the mid-MoFo recipe.

Easy Baked Cauliflower with Tomato

Teenage Mutant Ninja Cauliflower! 

  • 1 head of cauliflower, trimmed into florets
  • 2 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
  • Salt [Depends on the size of the cauliflower]
  • Fresh ground pepper, to taste
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast ["Nooch"]
  • 1/4 cup bread crumbs [I used panko]
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine [If you omit, increase milk to 1 cup]

Makes about 4-6 servings

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Steam the cauliflower until it's tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.

In the same pan you steamed the cauliflower in [unless you actually want to dirty another dish], mix the tomatoes, onion, garlic, milk, wine and salt. I find this dish needs a lot of salt, but please adjust the levels to your own preference.

Dump the steamed cauliflower into a gratin dish or casserole. Pour the tomato-milk mixture over top. Sprinkle with nooch and bread crumbs, then douse with the wine.

Bake for 30 minutes to an hour, or until soft. Time will depend on the amount of cauliflower, the size of your florets and whether you use a shallow gratin pan or a casserole. I used a monster cauliflower, large florets and a casserole, so mine took the full hour.




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7 comments:

FoodandLoathing said...

Hey, speaking of your funky jewelry, I have the same necklace as you were wearing on what I believe was your original book cover to Urban Vegan. I remember I'd cooked from your book, like, 10 times before I noticed.

Anonymous said...

Love cauliflower! And no apologies needed. After all, 50 shades came from somewhere else ;-}

I think cauliflower's day is coming. It never gets enough attention and you can do so many things with it. Maybe we make 2013 the year of cauliflower?

urban vegan said...

Forever 21, right? That necklace was so tarnished and is long gone. Broke. Do you still have yours?

FoodandLoathing said...

Ha, amazingly YES, I do, despite the fact that I break evvvvverything. I actually blogged about this over two years ago! http://www.foodandloathing.com/2010/08/eating-on-staycation.html

Joey said...

I love cauliflower - and I didn't even know there was an orange version! Am so up for making some of this - cauli is definitely better baked!

omgoshimvegan said...

I love cauliflower! Can't get enough of it. I've found white,orange and purple recently and love cooking them in the oven and just eating it plain. YUM!

Stephen@HappyHeart said...

Such an underrated vegetable! Love it roasted with lots of black pepper and mustard for dipping on the side!