Doctor's Kitchen Monday: Look Ma! The Cauliflower's Changin' Colors!

Aunt Miranda sent a bag of goodies over the other day from her favorite produce department.  It's always fun when she does that (thank you, Auntie Miranda!) because it gives me new fun veggies to play with.  I'd heard of these but never actually had any in my hands.

That got me thinking about cauliflower. I love it: raw, cooked, pureed (the fake mashed potatoes), fried with lemon sauce (super yum).  My husband hates it.  The smell alone drives him away.  And I don't blame him.  Some people can get past it, some can't. Personally, I love cooked cauliflower but I've never been able to get past the smell of turnips cooking.  To each his own.

In any color, cauliflower is very good for you.  More so than you might think. For example, 1 cup of raw cauliflower gives you the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant.  On that basis alone, cauliflower is on the hit parade of "good for you" vegetables and is my addition this week to Cate at Sweetnick's Antioxidant Rich Foods/5-A-Day weekly event.  Check out Cate's site for more ARF foods.

Along with Vitamin C, cauliflower, a member of the cruciferous cabbage family, is high in Vitamin B6, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, niacin, potassium, riboflavin, thiamin, cancer-fighting phytochemicals, and also soluble fiber.  A one cup raw serving only has 25 calories with .1g fat, 5.3 gr carbs, and 2 g protein.

If you eat the orange cauliflower it has twenty-fives times the vitamin A than the white variety. The purple cauliflower is loaded with the anti-oxidant anthrocyanin, which is the same good stuff round in red wine and purple cabbage.

The one thing to watch for, before going on the all cauliflower diet, is that cauliflower is also high in gotrigins which are bad for those with thyroid disease and it can be hard on the kidneys for those with kidney disease.  Don't misinterpret what I just said. Cauliflower is great for the body. But, in the few cases of folks with kidney disease, it might want to be avoided along with a long list of foods, and in the case of thyroid disease, it should not be consumed in high quantiities necessarily.

One of my favorite cauliflower recipes isn't really a recipe.  That is simply to marinate the cauliflower in fat free italian dressing.  It's quick, easy, you keep it in the fridge, and it's great as a snack to walk in, grab a few florettes and go.

Plus, it's pretty, especially with the colored heads.

1 cup serving of cauliflower with 1 Tbsp fat free Italian dressing:

Cal: 35;   Protein:  2.5;  Carbs:  6;  Fat: .2 grams  Soluble Fiber:  2gr

Comments

[Auntie Miranda]

Thanks for the nutritional info. Never thought about the different colors having different nutrients also. Makes sense, though.

[TexanNewYorker]

Mmmmmmm cauliflower. We never cooked it growing up; I only ever had it raw with ranch dressing. Once I started cooking for myself, though, I found the joys of "fake mashed potatoes" as you call them. (Though the comparison, to me, is like soy milk vs. milk: I love them both, but don't consider one a substitute for the other.) A few weeks ago, I had a cooking date with a vegetarian friend of mine, and we created a tasty dish out of roasted cauliflower and sautéed fiddleheads. If you're interested, I'll send you an approximated recipe. YUM!

[sher]

I love the way you layered them. The colors look wonderful! And I love cauliflower--but have a thyroid problem. Darn.

[Glenna]

Auntie Miranda--me neither but it does make sense, doesn it? So a glass of red wine or a purple cauliflower smoothie. Works for me. :-)

Kyleen--I would agree with that about mashed potatoes and pureed cauliflower being too separate but enjoyable things. Your roasted cauliflower and fiddlehead sounds wonderful. Would love the recipe. Some day I'll also have to make a dish Auntie Miranda and I used to go to one certain restaurant for lunch just for the fried slices of cauliflower served with a lemon sauce similar to the sauce on chicken scalloppini (Never know to spell that!). Very yum.

Sher--Thank you! I know. I didn't know that aobut thyroid either but it's everything in the cruciferous family plus everything in the horseradish family. Sucks. But nothing I've read says don't eat it all, just don't overload any one or a mix on any given day. On the other hand, it was pretty specific that anyone in later stages of kidney failure need to watch out. Something in the cruciferous family (a chemical) turns to uric acid and plays havoc with the kidneys.

[Alisha]

Huh. I've never heard of the thyroid thing either (and I have that same problem .. darn!) This won't make me give up on eating cauliflower, but it might make me think a little more before devouring an entire head. :-)

[Glenna]

Alisha--Yeah, I hear you. I can't imagine giving up all veggies in the cabbage and horseradish families, onions, and I can't remember what else. I have a book called The Thyroid Diet but I've never read it. I get so tired of hearing all the things I shouldn't eat, it's too depressing.

[Kate]

I had no idea!

I have a head of cauliflower I need to cook soon. The recipe I have is roasted curried cauliflower -- if it turns out well, I'll post it.

Oh! And the salad? Every once in a while I but something like that from our local deli -- cauliflower, broccoli, red onion, and celery in an Italian dressing. It's yum.

[Glenna]

Kate--that sounds really yummy! Both of those, the curried and the salad. You know, our deli has something close too that has everything you just said plus olives and zucchini. I love it too but there is something about the simplicity of the cauliflower that can stand alone by itself. Happy Curry!