Weeknight Cooking

17 Reasons Cauliflower Is Your Weeknight Hero

November  1, 2017

Data scientists may have officially declared Monday to be the worst, but when it comes to dinner (or lunch!) prep, my vote’s for Wednesday. Hear me out—on Monday, you still have Sunday’s leftovers for lunch and probably dinner. But even the strongest human gets tired of the same exact meal three days in a row. By Wednesday, we need a weeknight hero.

Cauliflower is the perfect base for midweek meals. It bulks up salads, lightens creamy gratins, and adapts to any and all spice levels. Simply steaming or roasting a head can take care of the rest of the week’s lunches and dinners. It’s the hearty-yet-flexible vegetable we need and deserve. So, if you’re looking for a hero tonight, let one of these cauliflower dishes save the day.

Do you have a Wednesday hero? Let us know how you cook cauliflower or your favorite ingredient below!

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A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).

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See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • witloof
    witloof
  • BerryBaby
    BerryBaby
  • ktr
    ktr
Katie is a food writer and editor who loves cheesy puns and cheesy cheese.

3 Comments

witloof November 1, 2017
i slice cauliflower on a mandoline, which quickly turns it into rice, then spread it on a baking sheet with salt, pepper, olive oil, chopped garlic, and nutritional yeast. Bake it at 400 for about 15 minutes, then it's ready to either eat as is or to mix with chopped herbs like mint and cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice, dried fruit that has been plumped in vinegar, toasted nuts, etc. That's a standard winter dinner for me, and especially good when cauliflower is abundant at our local greenmarket. Purple cauliflower is especially lovely mixed with green herbs!
 
ktr November 1, 2017
I haven't tried baking cauliflower rice but I may give that a try using your instructions. I usually get lazy and just microwave it for a few minutes.
 
BerryBaby November 1, 2017
Cauliflower 'steaks'. Big slices either in the oven or in a pan browned on both sides.
At the farmers market a woman shared her cabbage 'steaks'. Same idea with thick slices of red cabbage. I'm going to give it a try.