9 Ways To Cook Cauliflower

Cauliflower is a vegetable that is eaten a lot in the Netherlands. Cauliflower is used in many variations in many dishes. To process cauliflower in your dishes, it is usually cooked. This blog discusses 9 ways to cook cauliflower.

9 Ways To Cook Cauliflower:

– cooking times are guidelines and depend on the size of the cauliflower –

Cauliflower Cooking al dente

Cooking the cauliflower al dente is the way of cooking cauliflower when we are not cooking it further. The boiled cauliflower is then the dish. We can cook cauliflower florets or the whole cauliflower, but before we start with this we need to wash and cut the cauliflower first.

Cauliflower Cleaning

When we have cut the cauliflower into pieces, it still needs to be cleaned under the tap. The cauliflower is usually not really dirty, but invisible dirt and sand do need to be rinsed off.

We clean the cauliflower under running water. The cut cauliflower goes into the colander and we clean the cauliflower under the tap. Let the cauliflower drain in the sink.

Cauliflower Cooking al dente

After cutting and cleaning the cauliflower, we can start cooking the cauliflower until al dente. We do this in the following way:

• First wash and cut the cauliflower as shown in the video above.
• Place a pan with plenty of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt if desired.
• When the water boils, add the cauliflower florets. Bring the water back to a boil.
• We cook the cauliflower al dente in 8 – 10 minutes. To check if the cauliflower is al dente, you can pierce it with a fork. If it goes in easily, the cauliflower is ready.
• Drain the cauliflower in the colander and place the cauliflower on a serving platter. Add a little vegetable butter and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bee also wrote a blog about flavoring cauliflower with herbs, ‘ Which Herbs With Cauliflower? ‘ is the blog.

Cooking whole cauliflower al dente

We can also cook a whole cauliflower al dente. This requires a large pan into which the cauliflower is placed in its entirety.

• Place a large pan with plenty of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt if desired.
• When the water boils, the whole cauliflower goes into the pan. Be careful when putting it in the pan!
• Bring the water back to the boil and cook the whole cauliflower al dente for 8-10 minutes.
• Pierce with a fork to determine if the cauliflower is al dente. The fork should go in easily.
• Then remove the pan from the heat and drain the cauliflower.
• Serve the cauliflower with tasty herbs.

Cooking Cauliflower In Microwave

Cooking cauliflower in the microwave is also very good. This is done faster and just as tasty as cooking cauliflower in water until al dente. Go through the following steps:

• First we need to clean and cut the cauliflower as described in the video above.
• Place the cauliflower florets in a microwaveable bowl and add 3 – 4 tablespoons of water. Then cover the bowl.
• Set your microwave to 700 watts and the timer to 4 minutes and turn on the microwave.
• After 4 minutes, pierce the cauliflower to determine if the cauliflower is al dente. The fork should go in easily. If this is not the case, cook the cauliflower for another 2 minutes and determine again whether the cauliflower is cooked.
• Remove the microwave dish from the microwave and serve the cauliflower.

Cauliflower Blanching

The next of the 9 ways to cook cauliflower is a very special one, blanching. We blanch cauliflower when we want to store and freeze the cauliflower, for example.

Blanching is cooking the cauliflower briefly and then cooling. Boiling kills the bacteria present and cooling stops the cooking process.

• First we need to clean and cut the cauliflower. This is explained in the video above.
• A pan with water is placed on the heat source and we bring the water to a boil.
• At the same time, prepare another pan and fill it with cold water and ice cubes. Don’t have ice cubes? Then set the colander ready in the sink.
• When the water is boiling, we put the cauliflower florets in the pan and cook the cauliflower for 2-3 minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and drain the cauliflower in the colander.
• Then place the cauliflower in the pan with ice water or rinse the cauliflower under running water.
• When the cauliflower has cooled, pat it dry with kitchen paper.
• The cauliflower can now be placed in a freezer bag and in the dirter.

Cooking Cauliflower For Baby Snack

Cooking cauliflower for baby food takes longer than cooking for al dente. To do this, go through the following steps:

• The first thing we do is clean and cut the cauliflower. This is demonstrated in the video above.
• Place a pan of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil.
• When the water boils, the cauliflower goes into the pan. Bring the water to a boil again.
• Boil the cauliflower for 10 minutes.
• Drain the cauliflower in the colander and transfer the cauliflower to the bowl of your mixer.
• Add a vegetable butter and mix the cauliflower into a puree.
• For the baby snack, use 2/3 part cauliflower and 1/3 part potato.

Cooking Cauliflower For Stir Fry

The stir-fry is delicious and you can make nice dishes with it. However, we must first cook the cauliflower before we stir-fry.

• Wash and cut the cauliflower as explained in the video above.
• Place a pan of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil.
• When the water boils, add the cauliflower.
• Bring the water back to a boil and cook the cauliflower for 3 minutes.
• Drain the cauliflower in the colander and pat the cauliflower dry or use it immediately in your stir-fry dish.

We have also written a blog about preparing cauliflower that also describes stir-frying. The blog is ‘ How To Prepare Cauliflower? ‘.

Cooking Cauliflower For Woks

Wok is different from stir-frying. Wok cooking is cooking cauliflower briefly at a high temperature. Stir-frying is cooking cauliflower with other vegetables at medium temperature.

• Watch the video above for how to clean and cut cauliflower.
• Place a pan with plenty of water on the heat source and bring the water to a boil.
• When the water boils, the cauliflower can be placed in the pan. Bring the water back to a boil.
• After 3 minutes the cauliflower is ready and can be drained in the colander.
• Rinse the cauliflower with cold water if you are going to process the broccoli later or put the broccoli in the wok immediately after draining and get to work.

Cooking Cauliflower In Broth

If you want to make it easy for yourself and also want to serve a tasty cauliflower, you can cook the cauliflower in stock. To do this, go through the following steps.

• Watch the video above for how to clean and cut cauliflower.
• Place a pan of water on the heat source and boil the water.
• When it boils, the cauliflower goes into the pan along with a stock cube.
• Bring the water to the boil again and the cauliflower will be al dente in 5 minutes.
• You can check this by poking it with a fork. If it goes in easily, it’s ready in the cauliflower.
• Then drain the cauliflower in the colander and the cauliflower can be served immediately, because it is already nice and spicy.

Cooking Cauliflower For Casserole

The last of the 9 ways to cook cauliflower is for a casserole dish. If we are going to make a tasty casserole, it is advisable to cook the cauliflower first. This way you know for sure that the cauliflower is cooked. We need to go through the following steps:

• A pan of water is placed on the heat source and the water is brought to a boil.
• When the water boils, the cauliflower can be placed in the pan.
• The cauliflower is now briefly cooked in 3 minutes.
• Drain the cauliflower and use it in your casserole right away. The cauliflower is still nice and warm, which is great for further processing.