Creative Uses for Cauliflower, 2015's Oft-Predicted Top Food Trend

Cauliflower may be the new kale, and here's how to cook with it.

ByABC News

January 7, 2015, 11:06 AM

Allrecipes' Cauliflower Steaks
Allrecipes

 -- 2015 has arrived, and with it has come food trend predictions from experts, blogs, magazines and more. One common theme? Cauliflower.

“Cauliflower is surpassing kale this year,” chef Candy Argondizza, vice president of culinary and pastry at New York City’s International Culinary Center, predicted to ABC News. “I think it’s definitely going to be the vegetable of 2015.”

The uses for cauliflower go way beyond roasting and crudité, something chefs across the country are tapping into with innovative uses such as grilling it like a steak, grating it to resemble rice, pureeing it as an alfredo cream sauce substitute and more.

“Cauliflower is a really interesting vegetable because it’s extremely versatile and there’s a deepness to the flavor that’s profound,” Argondizza said. “It’s extremely versatile, it’s healthy, it can be blanched or boiled, cut and roasted in the oven. Roasting gives it a whole other element of flavor. As a vegetable it’s on a lot of menus, and right now it’s very seasonal.”

Not only can the vegetable stand on its own, even roasted whole, but Argondizza said cauliflower also functions well as a secret ingredient, such as by fortifying mashed potatoes to be healthier and being baked into pizza crusts for a gluten-free version.

“It’s got a nice background note,” she said. “It’s almost like the anchovy of the vegetable variety – it’s that hidden ingredient where you shouldn’t even know it’s there, but it lends such a unique flavor profile.”

Get cooking with this hip veggie yourself with the many recipes below.

Cauliflower Steak