TOP-4 recipes with photos of cooking lean cauliflower dishes at home. Tips and secrets from experienced chefs. Video recipes.
The pleasant taste and benefits of cauliflower suggest the question of what to cook from cauliflower? Cauliflower recipes are very varied. These are soups, stews, casseroles, salads. During the period of fasting, the time of spiritual cleansing and abstinence, when it is forbidden to eat products of animal origin, lean dishes from cauliflower help out. In addition, cauliflower is useful as a dietary food and for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. This material offers a selection of simple TOP-4 of the most delicious recipes for lean cauliflower dishes and the secrets of its preparation at home. These cauliflower recipes are also useful for vegetarians.
Tips and secrets from experienced chefs
- Choose young cauliflower, without damage or spots on the surface. You can determine the freshness of the fruit by the leaves of a pale green color and the creamy surface of the inflorescences.
- Darkened and wilted cabbage means that the vegetable is stale and has lost its juiciness.
- It is eaten raw, such as a salad. But this cauliflower is not suitable for every stomach. Therefore, it is safer to subject it to heat treatment: bake, fry in its own form or in batter, marinate, steam.
- Before cooking, the cabbage must be washed, disassembled into inflorescences and filled with salted water for 12-15 minutes, so that the remaining insects float to the surface. For 1 liter of liquid, take 1 tbsp. salt.
- After soaking in salted water, the inflorescences must be washed, discarded on a sieve and dried.
- It is better to cook the inflorescences in a stainless steel pan over low heat.
- All the trace elements in cauliflower will be better preserved if cooked in a pressure cooker. For the same purpose, prepare cauliflower in a double boiler and cauliflower in a slow cooker.
- Both fresh and frozen cabbage can be fried and stewed. To do this, it is better to pre-boil it for 5 minutes, dry it and discard it in a colander.
- With any method of cooking cauliflower, it cannot be overcooked, otherwise it will not turn out tasty and not healthy.
- For spice, various spices and herbs are added to the dish, which will saturate the neutral taste of cauliflower.
- To remove the cabbage smell, which many do not like, you can boil the inflorescences for 4 minutes with a sprig of rosemary and lemon zest. You can also get rid of the unpleasant taste and smell, drain the first water (it will be yellow-green), with which the unpleasant aroma will go away.
- Cauliflower can be served as a side dish, salad, soup, etc.
- The closest relative of cauliflower is broccoli, which is distinguished by its bright green color and richer vitamin composition. Therefore, these varieties of cabbage are interchangeable.
- For blanching, soak the cabbage in boiling water for 5-7 minutes. After that, it can be cooked further (baked, fried) or added to salads.
- Cabbage is boiled for 10-13 minutes. After cooking, put it in cold water with ice and stand for 2-3 minutes to stop the cooking process. Otherwise, it will be digested.
Cauliflower in batter
The most common way to cook cauliflower is to fry it. To shorten the roasting time, the inflorescences are pre-boiled for no longer than 5 minutes. Then the cabbage will be softer and juicier. But to get crunchy pieces, the inflorescences are fried raw.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 89 kcal.
- Servings - 4-5
- Cooking time - 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower - 1 kg (frozen or fresh)
- Vegetable oil - how much it takes for frying and 1 tbsp. for batter
- Flour - 1 tbsp.
- Water - 1 tbsp.
- Soda - 0.5 tsp
- Curry - pinch
- Vinegar 9% - 1 tbsp
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Garlic - 1 clove
- Salt to taste
Cooking cauliflower in lean batter:
- For batter, pour slightly warm water into a bowl, add sifted flour and stir with a fork until smooth.
- Add vinegar slaked baking soda, spices and herbs. Then pour in the oil, squeeze the garlic through a press and beat with a whisk. Leave the batter to infuse for half an hour.
- Disassemble the head of cabbage into inflorescences, put them in boiling water, boil in salted water for 5 minutes, discard in a colander and cool.
- Pour the vegetable oil into a skillet and heat.
- Dip the cauliflower in the batter and lay out to fry. It is convenient to dip it using the legs of the inflorescences, so it is better not to cut them off. If the legs are cut off, use a fork or skewer to process.
- Cook the cabbage over medium heat for 1 minute on each side for a nice golden color.
- Place the cabbage on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil and serve the vegetables to the table.
Cauliflower soup
Lean cauliflower soup tastes good and is incredibly healthy. The recipe can be made not lean by boiling it in meat broth. If you want to make the dish more tender, prepare a puree soup. To do this, all cooked vegetables, together with cabbage, must be punched in a blender to get a homogeneous mousse. Also, to improve the taste of the soup, cook it in vegetable broth, broth from beans or potatoes.
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower - 400 g
- Red lentils - 120 g
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.
- Tomato - 1 pc.
- Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
- Black peppercorns - 2-3 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 1 pc.
- Salt to taste
- Water - 1.6 l
- Greens - a bunch
Cooking Cauliflower Soup:
- Disassemble the cauliflower into inflorescences, soak in salted water for 5 minutes, rinse and size into inflorescences until they are about the same size.
- Peel the carrots, wash and grate on a coarse grater.
- Peel the bell pepper from the seed box and cut into strips.
- Wash the tomato and cut into small wedges.
- In a saucepan with a thick bottom, heat the vegetable oil and send the carrots and peppers to fry.
- When the vegetables are fried, send the washed lentils to them.
- Next, pour in hot water or vegetable broth and cook after boiling for 15 minutes.
- Place cauliflower in a saucepan, simmer, reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes.
- Send tomatoes to the soup, put bay leaves, black pepper, salt and pepper.
- Boil the soup for 2 minutes, turn off the heat, cover the pot with a towel and let the soup brew.
- Sprinkle with chopped herbs before serving.
Stew with cauliflower
An unusual variegated side dish with delicate cauliflower, soft bell peppers and carrots, and ginger root gives aroma and spices. The dish is not at all troublesome to prepare, but it turns out to be very healthy and tasty. You can also diversify the recipe with saffron. Then during the fast you will eat a variety of foods.
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower - 400 g
- Carrots - 70 g
- Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.
- Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
- Grated ginger root - 1 tsp
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
- Curry to taste
- Turmeric - to taste
- Paprika to taste
- Vegetable oil - for frying
Cooking Lean Cauliflower Stew:
- Wash cauliflower and chop finely.
- Peel, wash and chop the carrots.
- Cut the peeled bell pepper from the seed box into cubes.
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, add spices (ginger, curry, turmeric, paprika) and lightly fry.
- Add chopped peppers and carrots and sauté the vegetables for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add cauliflower, stir and cook for a few minutes.
- Season with salt, add water (1-2 tablespoons), reduce heat and simmer, covered for 20 minutes, to soften the cabbage.
- Serve hot cauliflower stew. The dish can be complemented with peas (fresh, canned, frozen), corn, zucchini, herbs, tomatoes, tomato paste …
Pickled cauliflower with vegetables
A spicy, tasty and healthy snack - tender pickled cauliflower with instant vegetables. This is a simple, lean diet full of vitamins. The dish can be consumed not only on fast days. Pickled vegetables will perfectly complement any meal.
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 1 pc.
- Garlic - 3 wedges
- Sweet Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.
- Water - 500 ml
- Table vinegar 9% - 2 tbsp. l.
- Sugar - 1, 5 tablespoons
- Salt - 1 tablespoon
- Unrefined sunflower oil - 2 tablespoons
- Allspice - 3 pcs.
- Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
- Cloves - 2 pcs.
- Coriander - 1 tsp
Cooking Pickled Cauliflower with Vegetables:
- Disassemble the cabbage into small inflorescences, put in a saucepan, fill with water and boil for 1 minute from the moment of boiling, so that it becomes soft but elastic. Then it will be crispy.
- Peel carrots, garlic and bell peppers, wash and cut into arbitrary thin slices. For example, cut pepper into cubes, garlic into slices, carrots into slices.
- For the marinade, combine all ingredients. Pour water into a saucepan, add sugar, salt, allspice, bay leaf, cloves and coriander. Put everything on fire and heat to dissolve the sugar and salt. It is not necessary to bring the mixture to a boil.
- Remove the pot from the stove, put the cabbage and chopped vegetables into it. Pour in vinegar and oil, stir, cover and leave at room temperature.
- After cooling, put the pan in the refrigerator for 10 hours.
Video recipes for cooking lean cauliflower dishes
Cauliflower in batter
Cauliflower with spices
