Itching to add more plant-based foods to your diet? Try this tasty alternative with fleshy sulfureous, onion-like, cauliflower.
Besides those sulfureous compounds, they also contain fresh green notes which pair well with fresh, crisp mesclun and herbs. The marigold leaves offer not only some contrasting color to the dish, but complement it with a green, slightly citrusy flavor. Chimichurri plays a key role to balance the overall aroma with it’s lemony, green, herbal, and slightly spicy note. It also diversifies the creamy smooth texture of the smoked cauliflower leave puree and the soft juicy interior of the florets. The crunchiness is given by lettuce as well. 
Cauliflower contains many compounds that are soluble in water. Therefore, they are lost during cooking. Because of this, the characteristic smell is released in the kitchen when the cauliflower is boiled, but doesn’t remain in the vegetable itself. This loss of flavor can be avoided in two ways. First: stew them in any kind of fat that creates a layer around florets, then the water won’t interact with the fat as they don’t ‘like’ each other (water is a hydrophilic compound while fat – hydrophobic). The aromatic compounds won’t evaporate from the vegetable. Another approach is to roast raw cauliflowers in the oven or fry in the pan on low-heat. You can use the whole florets or slice thinly. This step enhances the flavor and gives more taste. Asparagus benefits from these same techniques.
Green leaves’ cauliflower smoked cream
ingredients
- 500 g green leaves of cauliflower
- 50 g smoked sunflower oil
- white miso, to taste
- 3 g xanthan
preparation
Take off the green leaves of the cauliflower, freeze them to break their fibers. Roast them at 200°C just for 5 minutes to obtain the specific flavor and then steam them for about 12 minutes. Put all the ingredients in a thermomix and blend it until smooth.
Roasted cauliflowers
ingredients
- Colourful cauliflowers (white, yellow, violet, green)
- Oil
- Kosher salt, to taste
preparation
Steam the full cauliflowers for 10 minutes. Let it cold down, them oil them a bit and put on the barbecue until fully cooked (al dente). Add a pinch kosher salt before serving.
Chimichurri
ingredients
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 shallots
- 1 bouquet of coriander
- 1 bouquet of parsley
- ⅓ bouquet of lemon thyme
- ⅓ bouquet of oregano
- 1 chili, seeded
- 1 tbsp of fresh marjoram
- 400 g of olive oil
- 100 g of white wine vinegar
- 1 dash of smoked oil
- Salt, to taste
preparation
Chop the herbs and mix all the ingredients together.
Plate the dish
Make a smudge of cauliflower cream. Place several florets of diverse colors on the plate. Lay down chimichurri and garnish with the mix of lettuce, herbs, and marigold.
