Colourful Cauliflower

July 8, 2003

I was preparing dinner the other night and for some reason the phrase popped into my head - leaving home means you never have to eat Brussels sprouts again.

I wonder how many kids exit the family nest breathing a sigh of delight that all those vegetables Mum forced them to eat need never darken their dinner plate again.

Cooking vegetables for my sons was something of a mission some days. By the time I crossed off all the ones Ben wouldn't eat and the others that James couldn't stand, there was little left but potatoes, peas, beans, carrots and salads.

Fortunately four years out flatting cured them of a lot of their pickiness. I guess at times they got sufficiently hungry to eat anything. The boy that picked every bit of mushroom off a pizza now doesn't seem to notice its presence. And the one who couldn't stand eggplant is now a dab hand at cooking it.

I don't mind Brussels sprouts although I prefer mine on the crunchy side and not boiled to death and sulphurous. The only time I couldn't really face them was when I was pregnant and it just happened to coincide with a bumper crop of sprouts in the garden. I felt guilty every time I walked past them, but I couldn't bring myself to cut, cook or eat them.

I was digging through some of my old recipes recently and I came across one that used to be a favourite way of cooking cauliflower - another member of the brassica family kids seem to abhor.

I used to make this one with dried basil because fresh basil wasn't readily available. The dried variety is fine in this context as it adds a pepperiness though these days I think I would use fresh.

Colourful Cauliflower

One cauliflower divided into florets
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
one onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green pepper, deseeded and diced
quarter cup water
four medium tomatoes, skinned and deseeded
2 teaspoon dried basil or a handful of fresh basil, chopped
seasoning

Chop the tomatoes and sprinkle with basil.

Simmer the onion and garlic in the vinegar and Worcestershire sauce for three to five minutes. Add the cauliflower and green pepper and water and cook for a further five minutes. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

Add the tomatoes and basil and simmer for about five minutes, shaking the pot to mix the vegetables.

Serve the cauliflower with the cooking liquid poured over it - there will probably be very little left. Grind over some fresh pepper.