Years passed by, actually decades, and I resisted cooking the lowly cauliflower. Any number of recipes deigned to peak my interest having crossed my path, but none met my own supposed culinary discernment. There was cauliflower pizza crust. Who does that? Isn't pizza crust supposed to be crunchy? How could cauliflower become crunchy, I wasn't going there. Cauliflower dip? A vision of a putrid off white gritty dip came to mind. I resisted that experiment as well. Cauliflower steak? No, sorry a vegetable is not a steak, even if you aren't a meat eater.
Earlier this month I watched a cable episode of Diane Kochilas, My Greek Table, where she featured whole roasted cauliflower with feta and honey. (image borrowed from her site) Her words not mine, "This is divine. And dramatic. And easy". Gary's been doing all the shopping this past year so I put cauliflower on the list. He expressed any number of complaints over this item but I insisted he keep it on the list. He said ok, but I am not eating it. Fast forward to eating the roasted cauliflower. Gary said just give me one bite. After that we split the whole cauliflower between us. The dish was like a belated valentine dinner. No kidding. Gary was not only raving about it a day or two after we partook of the sweet white vegetable, but he was thanking me over and over again for making the cauliflower.
(Aside: do you recall I mentioned years ago that my grandfather on my mother's side was Greek. I met him once. To this day I only know his surname. I hope to learn more about my Greek heritage in the future, please read my blog post, bittersweet halva).
This recipe calls for putting a whole cauliflower on a parchment lined baking dish but I recommend placing it on a rack in glass baking dish with a small amount of water in the bottom to keep the vinegar mixture from burning. I also pierced the cauliflower with a metal skewer to insert the garlic slices which also enhanced the penetration of the honey balsamic vinegar mixture into the interior of the head of cauliflower. Next time I'm going to try the recipe with the cauliflower broken into florets using the same ingredients. Please follow links for the recipe and enjoy.
Be Safe, Be Well
Interesting, Linda. We like cauliflower, but don't eat it much. My favorite has always been a broccoli/cauliflower casserole with lots of cheese and garlic. But this sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteHi Rian, thanks, if Gary says he likes it two days in a row it's worth trying out and of course I like it too, the cauliflower actually was sweet tasting even the parts without the vinegar honey mixture. Roasting must make a difference in the flavor of the cauliflower.
DeleteI am a big fan of cauliflower. The other household resident is not.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, thanks, I don't eat steak either, if that's who you are referring to. lol
ReplyDeleteI like cauliflower but cooking a whole one would be far too much just for me. But, in saying that, the method described above would, no doubt, be interesting, and tasty, if serving more than one.
ReplyDeleteTake good care. :)
This sounds so good! I have cauliflower on my shopping list. I will give this a try. Thanks Linda!
ReplyDelete