I have just blanched a ginormouse cauliflower...

[TreasonousBastard]

picked up from a local farmstand. Filled up a 6 quart pot, it did, and will be good nibbling for a while. (I have a lot of cheese sauce recipes...)

It had, of course, lots of leaves and I wondered if they were edible. A quick search showed lots of questionable sites telling me how good they were, but nobody I trusted to let me know about possible leafy toxins.

When I get home I'll try looking some more but, in the meantime, anyone here tried cooking 'em up?

[eppur_se_muova]

1. It's aloo gobi time ! nt

[dem in texas]

2. Creamed Cauliflower

This was a dish my mother made all the time when cauliflower was in season. We all loved it. She also made a salad with raw cauliflower, chopped apples and walnuts.

[dem in texas]

3. Thinking about cauliflower

Reading about your cauliflower made me want to buy a head, but not as big as the one you got. I think it will make a great soup. Pioneer Woman has a recipe for a cauliflower soup sounds good, but I would cut out a few of the steps she takes in making the soup, also not add the sour cream when serving (already has enough calories without the sour cream). We will be going to the market for produce later in the week and I will get a head of cauliflower.

[japple]

4. Roasted, curried cauliflower soup is delicious. Heck, just the

roasted cauliflower is awesome. Last time I made it, we ate it off the baking sheet before it ever got into the soup pot.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. OK, I agree with everyone who loves cauliflower, and I have...

loved it for years. Delicious and healthy-- even used it to replace about a third of the flour when baking low-carb bread.

But, I'm really asking here about the leaves-- some flaky websites claim they are edible, but I am not so sure.

Amazingly, most of the farmers out here know very little about how to cook the stuff they grow and sell. One starts to think that after all the work to grow and sell, they end up just going out to eat.

(Anyway, I'm about a third of the way through eating this one right out of the pot and will pick up another one in a couple of days.)

[NJCher]

6. being a gardener

and seeing how cauliflower grows, I can see why you would ask that question. For example, black aphids, which always affect my brassicas, are right on the leaves. If a grower is going to spray, that's where they would spray.

I know I have seen the RG, who has professional cooking experience in his background, use the leaves, but only once. I think that is more because brassica flavor is not something one needs much of, as it is very strong.

I don't think I'd take the chance.


Cher

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Thanks-- it's just that there's...

a LOT of leaves, and I hate to see them go to waste if they can be used.

But, there's also that big inedible broccoli stalk, cornstalks...

[NJCher]

8. if it was organic

I'd cut up the leaves like a slaw and put slaw dressing on them.

Actually, what you could do is cut them up for the leaf-eating wildlife. They don't eat enough produce with pesticides on them that it would affect them much.

Like you, I hate to waste anything.


Cher