Most people put cauliflower into the category of vegetables that your mother always tried to get you to eat. Cauliflower is almost always the untouched item on the crudité platter, and generally speaking, is not given enough regard when passing through the grocery store. Phooey! Cauliflower is delicious and worth experimenting with, as it lends itself well to many types of cuisines and preparations.

The name cauliflower comes from the Latin caulis (cabbage) and flower (duh), an acknowledgment of it’s odd place among a family of plants known mostly for their leafy greens. Cauliflower is a cold weather vegetable and member of the mustard family, which include brussels sprouts, kale, collards, radishes and turnips.

Low in fat, high in fiber, folate and vitamin C, cauliflower is a nutrient dense food worth reconsidering. Cauliflower contains compounds that have been shown to slow or prevent the growth of breast & prostate tumors, and compounds which may improve the livers ability to detoxify carcinogenic substances. High intake of cauliflower has been shown to reduce risk of agressive prostate cancer. Whats not to love?! Your mother was right… eat your cauliflower!

Cauliflower comes in many different varieties, each one beautiful in it’s own right. Purple, orange, green and white. The purple variety is colored by the antioxidant group anthocyanin, which also give cabbage and red wine their color. Orange cauliflower contains 25 times the level of vitamin A than white varieties, and makes a much prettier color soup to boot. And if you’ve ever seen a spikey green cauliflower looking thing in the market… it’s Romanesco cauliflower and those spikes are a stunning example of fractals in nature. Fun stuff!

Roasting all three varieties together makes for a great presentation, and a wonderful side dish. Cauliflower can be roasted, boiled, fried, steamed, eaten raw, or as the recipe below shows, made into soup!

So call your mother up, tell her she was right all along, and that you’re now eating cauliflower regularly. She’ll be so proud!