Yellow Cauliflower Tastes As Good As It Looks

I simply think the yellow cauliflower is one of the most beautiful veggies in the market these days. That golden yellow color almost screams sunny healthfulness, and it has a mellow flavor that melds easily with so many other veggies that you might have handy.

Tonight, I had half a head of the yellow wonder left in the veggie bin, along with a yellow squash, a zuchinni and some cherry tomatoes that needed to be used up. A simple braise with wine, butter and fresh herbs sounded like the right technique to showcase it all.

When I talk about the right technique for the ingredients, I hope you will take me seriously. For any food to be successful, you have to marry it to the appropriate technique. This is why I say beginning cooks should learn technique first - then they can quickly adapt on the fly to fresh, seasonal ingredients, creating a beautiful marriage of taste, texture and presentation.

This dish proves that you don’t have to rely on heavier Indian recipes to deliver really tasty, easy to love cauliflower to the table quickly and easily.

In this case, I set the cauliflower to steaming (for about 6-8 minutes) while I prepped the other ingredients - yellow squash, zuchinni, shallots, a couple cloves of garlic, and minced fresh herbs.

In a hot non-stick pan, with some grapeseed oil, I lightly sauteed the squash and shallots, adding the cherry tomatoes, garlic and herbs after a couple minutes. By this time, the cauliflower was al dente, and ready to join the party.

I love the sweet-tart pop of the cherry tomatoes as you bite into them!

After combining all the veg and ingredients, up the heat and add a couple generous splashes of white wine and a couple pats of butter. A sprinkle of sea salt and ground pepper are next. Let this all cook over medium-high for just a couple minutes more, stirring occasionally. Add a bit more wine and butter, if you want - why not? If you’d like a bit of heat, toss in some red pepper flakes. Hmmm. Shoulda’ done that.

Having learned this technique ( steaming, saute and braising), you can use it to cook any number of vegetable combinations - again, taking advantage of what is fresh and seasonal and beautiful. The wine, butter and fresh herbs take it all up several notches in flavor, and I think you will be able to please the most veggie-resistant members of your family. This side dish only took about 15 minutes total - prep, steam and braise.

The guy across the dinner table from me tonight pronounced it “really good.”

High praise, indeed.

-maven