How to Prepare Cauliflower (52 New Foods, Week 21) May 28 2012, 3 Comments

A visit to our school garden ignited our new food adventure this week: how to prepare cauliflower.

A school garden is a true treasure. At its best, it is a wonderfully integrated classroom. Children experience the full life cycle of our food, planting-growing-harvesting-cooking-eating-composting-planting, and they literally step inside the world of living math, science and literature. It surrounds them.  For our family, the school garden has an additional benefit – an opportunity to try new foods.

“Today we tried cauliflower from the garden! I loved it!” my daughter declared with pride. My heart smiled a big smile. I had been trying to get her to try cauliflower for months, to no avail. “How did you prepare the cauliflower?” I inquired. “We just picked it and ate it!” she replied, enthusiastically. In that spirit, this week we focused on the simple ways to enjoy cauliflower. I taught my daughter how to prepare cauliflower after it is harvested and we enjoyed it both raw and lightly roasted – simple pleasures.

How to Prepare Cauliflower

Step 1: Pull off the outer leaves and trim the stem.

How to prepare cauliflower step 1

How to prepare cauliflower step 2

Step 2: Turn the cauliflower upside down, stem facing up. Using a paring knife, cut around the core to remove it. Remind kids to always cut away from themselves and down.

How to prepare cauliflower step 3

Step 3: Cut the florets from the inner stem.

How to prepare cauliflower step 4

Step 4: Cut the florets in half.

How to prepare cauliflower step 5

Step 5: Enjoy raw or lightly roasted.

To roast cauliflower, simply toss in a little olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. You can do this right on the baking pan. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes, tossing frequently to ensure even roasting. Remove from the oven and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Enjoy!

What we liked: The simple preparation of this garden fresh veggie was our favorite part of this week’s adventure.

How do you like to prepare cauliflower? Share your tips and recipes!

Next up: Heirloom tomatoes caught our eye at the market this week. We’re experimenting with a few different recipes. Tune in next week when we share our favorite!

Craving more new recipes to try? Catch up on last week’s recipe: Simple cherry compote.

About the author: Jennifer Tyler Lee is a mom of two children and the creator of Crunch a Color™ -- the award-winning game that makes healthy eating fun. Like most parents, she struggled to get her kids to eat healthy, balanced meals, so she decided to make it into a healthy eating game and she’s giving back to support non-profit children’s nutrition programs including Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and FoodCorps. Watch her picky eaters tell the story of how they turned into healthy eaters playing the game. Follow @crunchacolor on Facebook and Twitter to tune into Crunch a Color's healthy eating adventure and Jennifer’s tips and kid-friendly, easy recipes.