Always a fool for beauty, I bought this purple cauliflower on impulse—and then wracked my brain for a way to prepare it.
The thing is, I’m not a huge cauliflower fan. All right, I gobble it up smothered in béchamel with a thick layer of buttered, toasted breadcrumbs. But otherwise I can take or leave cauliflower, purple or plain.
Because it’s December—always a busy month—and because I’m a real, working freelance copywriter who doesn’t spend all day in the kitchen, I chose the simplest, least fussy cooking method.
It also turned out to be the most delicious.
Ever since I tried roasting green beans, I’ve been intrigued by the—to me—novel idea of baking vegetables. There’s really nothing to this method: Drizzle vegies with olive oil, toss with crushed garlic, salt and coarsely ground pepper—and pop in the oven.
I think it’s the baking process itself that delivers the big-time flavor. This hot-air reduction method bakes off vegetable’s excess water—without drying it out—and yields slightly chewy texture and intense cauliflowery flavor.
This recipe turned me into a cauliflower evangelist. If you’re on the fence about cauliflower, I hope you’ll give it a try.
Naturally it works equally well with plain ole white cauliflower as with royal purple.
Slow-Roasted Purple Cauliflower Recipe
1 head of purple or other cauliflower
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Wash, pat dry and cut cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.
- In large bowl toss cauliflower with oil, salt and pepper.
- Spoon cauliflower into a single layer on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Note: Push cauliflower away from the edges of the pan to allow a 1-2″ margin—the cauliflower burns if too close to the edge.
- Slide pan into oven. Bake for an hour—or even a little longer—turning cauliflower with a slotted spoon or spatula every 20 minutes to cook evenly. Delicious hot or at room temperature.
Serves 6.
