BURNT CAULIFLOWER

There was a time, not so long ago that you couldn’t get a soul to try anything with cauliflower. Like most things, if not prepared properly it may not taste great, so there were many haters. Many readers here may have felt the same way about vegan food in general, until a vegan dish happened upon them (maybe even accidentally) that obliterated that doubt. My job on earth is to obliterate the doubters about vegan meals in general and if there are still some cauliflower nay sayers out there, you too! Let’s try burnt cauliflower.

Cauliflower 101

Cauliflower is a head of undeveloped flowers and is part of the cabbage family. Sweet isn’t the first thing to come to mind when you hear the word or see the groups of big white heads in the produce section.

Starch is a stored form of sugar in plants and when one adds heat by cooking you convert the starches to sugar. For example, when you slowly cook an onion, it gets very very sweet (think caramelized onions).

Apparently, the humble cauliflower has more sugar content than an onion when heated. This recipe proves it. Skip desert, eat burnt cauliflower!

Chef Tips

The recipe calls for roasting the cauliflower at 425° at 50 minutes. Somewhere 10-15 min before time’s up you will think, “Oh it’s burning,” keep going. If you use an air fryer for this recipe maybe cut the in half the time to 35-40 minutes due to the fan circulating the air.

When done, the tops of the florets should look like a mix of Great Barrier Reef coral and
designer black lace. When you taste a bite, the bottom part, the part touching the roasting
pan, gets soft, sweet and juicy. That sweet and juicy bottom melts with light pressure of your tongue against the roof of your mouth simultaneously with the lacey part. Crispy, soft and sweet come together and bring a perfect textural and flavorful balance that arouses the senses to crave more of this gustatory pleasure! This is why I recommend at least cooking up two heads. They reduce in size dramatically and you will want more.

I leave you with a very simple recipe. You can vary it later. Try it this way the first time then you can try variations as you will have a good basis of what the cauliflower flavor story begins with. You can add garlic, thyme, pepper, curry spices, Ral-el-Hanout, finish with a drizzle of balsamic or pomegranate molasses, fresh chopped herbs. Grab a unique spice from Burlap and Barrel in the CTK marketplace to try out. The choice is your, make it your own story.

I often repeat this simple recipe as it is basic and pure and delicious. Nothing compliments the flavor of roast cauliflower more than cauliflower itself.