Cauliflower Recipes - Alphabet of Vegetables
IN A RUSH? Prefer Another Vegetable? Skip Straight to the Recipes or Switch to the A-Z of Vegetables . CAULIFLOWER: THE BASICS Botanically speaking, cauliflower is a member of the cabbage family of vegetables; its cousins are cabbages, broccoli, kohlrabi, turnips, bok choy, radishes, horseradish and Brussels sprouts. In the ground, a cauliflower plant sprouts tough outer leaves; growers tie these leaves together over the flower inside. Before harvest, the flower transforms into a clean, stark-white "head" of cauliflower, the edible part of the plant . To eat or cook the cauliflower, the outer leaves are cut away and discarded; a large V is often cut into the slightly woody core to speed cooking. A cauliflower's large stalks are called " large florets " and tiny bites of cauliflower are called " small florets ". Florets are aptly named: a head of cauliflower is actually the plant's immature flower. When cooked, cauliflower becomes creamy and i