Growing up, outside of being the ugly, bad-tasting vegetable no one wanted on the veggie platter at parties — the one even ranch dressing couldn’t help — cauliflower was rarely seen at my house, but for one exception: fried cauliflower. In my current commitment to healthy, conscious eating and living, I cringe at the memory, but the smell of frying cauliflower remains a vivid part of my childhood. I can still hear the Fry Daddy bubbling and churning like a witches’ cauldron as my step-father dropped battered cauliflower florets into the waiting hot oil like tiny virgins being sacrificed to our appetites. Waiting for the caramel brown bites of heaven to cool on their greasy paper towels felt like hours in my childlike impatience. It was amazing what pancake batter and a little oil could do to the previously undesirable vegetable. What had been inedible became this light, creamy delight surrounded by a subtle crunch.
And then I went to college and didn’t touch the stuff. For whatever reason, my body decided it could no longer tolerate fried foods. If I couldn’t eat cauliflower fried, then I surely wasn’t going to touch it raw. Eating raw cauli flower is like trying to chew peppery Styrofoam.
With my history with cauliflower, it’s been nothing short of surprising to witness the ever-growing popularity of this colorless, weird-looking cruciferous vegetable. And even more surprising: I’ve experienced an increasing taste and enjoyment for it.
And I’m not alone.
Cauliflower sales have been increasing steadily over the years, along with other vegetables. But recently, with a larger population choosing to turn toward a gluten-free or paleo-type diet for a variety of reasons real or imagined, cauliflower’s popularity has sky-rocketed. Recipes have been posted with increasing zeal across social media sites for grain free, cauliflower-based takes on old favorites. Cauliflower mashed “potatoes,” pizza crust, rice, tortillas, bagels, breadsticks and even mac and cheese are touted, deservingly so, as tasty alternatives to grain-based products.
Cauliflower recipes are outpacing cat videos on the Internet. It seems there is nothing this little vegetable can’t replace. Shepherd’s pie, chowders, grilled cheese sandwiches, curries, hashes … no part of the culinary world is safe.
But cauliflower is not utilized solely in replacing ‘unhealthier’ ingredients. Increasingly, it’s being enjoyed for its own subtle flavors.
Café Aion Chef and Owner Dakota Soifer didn’t always love cauliflower. It wasn’t until he became a chef working with wood fired ovens that he discovered the new depths of flavor that roasting could bring to the pale cruciferous vegetable. With its ability to handle bolder spices, such as curries, he realized there was more to the vegetable than he’d first thought.
And now, cauliflower has become a star at Café Aion. The fried cauliflower tapa reigns as one of their signature dishes — and for good reason. Dusted with toasted cumin and served with a dollop of saffron yogurt and lemon, the dish showcases the vegetable well. Soifer loves “how the starchy raw cauliflower, when dropped into ripping-hot oil, turns crispy on the outside and soft and sweet inside. People always ask if it is breaded, but we don’t. Nature gets it just right for us.”
Flavored with cinnamon, chilies, coriander and preserved lemons, cauliflower also takes the lead in the vegetable tagine. The mildness of the vegetable soaks up and imparts added strength to the heady Moroccan spices featured in the dish.
Soifer has enjoyed cauliflower’s rising popularity. “I think it is great when an ordinary, inexpensive vegetable becomes an ‘it’ ingredient,” he explains. He attributes the popularity to a number of factors, citing the low price as making it more appealing for restaurants to use; the heartiness of the vegetable; its versatility; and its availability at local farms.
Natalie Condon, farm manager of Isabelle Farms, from which Soifer often buys his vegetables, tends to agree with the latter, adding that, “We find the folks who like cauliflower best come from two camps: They’re either trueblue locavores always on the lookout for what’s in season locally, or adhere to a paleo diet and understand that cauliflower makes a great grain substitute in fried rice, tabbouleh [and] crusts.”
With the increase in demand in the versatile vegetable, some farmers eyed the erratic Boulder skies this spring and summer with dismay. The unusually wet year, with its short bursts of intense heat, tends to not make for the best of growing seasons.
“We planted our first succession of cauliflower prior to the May rains,” says Condon, “and the excessive May moisture has definitely taken a toll on that planting — the heads are smaller and not as radiant as we like them to be — but fortunately we plant a number of successions of cauli every season, and the subsequent successions are looking great.”
Hopefully the weather continues to cooperate so that local farms, such as Isabelle, are able to keep up with the demand. As the season progresses and the later successions of better looking and better tasting cauliflower plants mature and are harvested, look to the menus for an increasing number of cauli-inspired dishes and even drinks. It may not be long before cauliflower leaves the bloody mary toothpick to enjoy its place as star in its own cocktail.
But for now, as cauliflower season settles in, enjoy the seasonally inspired dishes of the local chefs, or branch out of your own comfort zone and experiment at home with this versatile vegetable.
