ROASTING CAULIFLOWER FOR DINNER

For my daughter's 4th birthday, we asked her what she would like to have for her birthday dinner.  Her response was awesome.  "Lamb lollipops, artichokes and roasted cauliflower.  Chocolate mousse for dessert."  Just like that.  She's so cool that it blows my mind.  I mean, what not-quite-four-year-old comes up with this menu on the fly?  Needless to say, it was a killer meal and she was one happy birthday girl. I'm thrilled to be roasting cauliflower for her birthday too.

In our house, roasted cauliflower is one of our staples.  The recipe here is smoky and earthy, brought to the forefront with smoked paprika and cumin.  You can really add so many different spices to roasted cauliflower that it is incredible.  My son loves it with cajun spice, my wife likes it with a little heat with red pepper flakes and my daughter loves it simply with salt and pepper.  If you have them, herbs de Provence work great too.

PREPARING CAULIFLOWER FOR ROASTING

Roasting cauliflower is a little bit of an art. Here's why: there is no standard size for a cauliflower head. Over the last six months at the market, the size of cauliflower heads has been wildly different. There has been a draught in California which caused a smaller head size (and a huge price increase) for months. The heads were also more dense which will change the cook time. Recently, cauliflower has become more readily available again with larger heads. If we take a look at Organic cauliflower, the heads are almost always smaller than conventionally grown. So I'm going to give a recipe that uses about 5 cups of cauliflower, which will reduce down to 4 after roasting.

To prepare the cauliflower for roasting, I first rinse the head with water. Then I core the cauliflower by putting it on the cutting board, head side down, and carefully use a utility knife to cut the core out of the cauliflower. Once the core is removed, I break the florets off the cauliflower. The larger florets are cut in half or quarters and all of them are tossed in a bowl to take a bath in olive oil and spices. From here, roasting the cauliflower is easy. Just line a sheet pan and toss in the oven. Lining the sheet tray makes cleanup a breeze.

QUICK COOKING TIP: Be careful how much olive oil you use when roasting cauliflower.  The cauliflower florets tend to absorb a lot of the oil when you pour it over them and I have seen so many people add way too much oil.  If there is too much, the cauliflower tends to turn mushy.  Nobody likes mushy roasted cauliflower.

Let's get ready to start roasting cauliflower!