Sautéeing Is The Worst Cooking Method You Can Use For Cauliflower

Cauliflower has grown in popularity over the past few years, and the hype is well-deserved. It is extremely nutritious — with high fiber and essential nutrients like choline — and has an earthy, nutty flavor and tender texture brought out by cooking. If your go-to method for preparing cauliflower is sautéeing, however, you may not achieve the best outcome, as doing so results in an inconsistent and unevenly cooked vegetable.

Sautéeing is a method that prepares food in a pan using a small amount of oil or fat over moderate or high heat, cooking things in a short time. This makes it a great option for quick-cooking vegetables like spinach, but cauliflower is another story. For sautéeing to be successful, the ingredient needs to make contact with the heat of the pan. With its many knobs and bumps, cauliflower presents a challenge: it is difficult to keep in contact with the pan, resulting in some parts being cooked through completely and others not at all.

Rather than going for a hot and fast approach, the best cooking methods for cauliflower take time and use a lower heat. Techniques like baking or roasting work very well since the hot air in an oven is able to reach every nook and cranny of the vegetable at once. To make roasted cauliflower, simply place your florets or sliced discs on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle with oil, and season to your taste before sticking it in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly an hour. 

In certain contexts, like for use in ramen or when making mashed cauliflower, steaming or boiling the vegetable may be a preferable cooking method. Once again, these methods work well because the hot steam or boiling water is able to reach all parts of the cauliflower at one time, ensuring even cooking and preventing charred or raw sections from ruining your dining experience. To use this approach, place the cauliflower in a steamer or pot of boiling water and let cook until fork-tender.