Easy French Cauliflower Recipes

These easy French cauliflower recipes all make great use of this oftentimes overlooked vegetable. Cauliflower marries well with cream and cheese and the French are not afraid of adding a little of either of these as you can see by these recipes.

Also included below are some tips for selecting, storing, cooking and freezing cauliflower.

More French Cauliflower Recipes

Chou-fleur à la béchamel - Sounds fancy right? All you need to do is steam your cauliflower and top with a quick becheamel sauce. Don't worry, it is very easy: bechamel sauce recipe.

Chou-fleur polonaise - Traditionally this is made by carefully cutting the vegetable into florets, cooking them, then reassembling them to create an entire head. But you can skip the assembly if you wish. Top the cooked cauliflower with chopped hard boiled eggs, parsley, and bread crumbs tossed in browned butter.

La Fleur de Bretagne

The vast majority of French cauliflower is grown in the region of Bretagne (Brittany), where it is enveloped in coastal fog much of the time. In Bretagne, each season features a different variety, so that you can almost always find cauliflower for sale in France. Not limited to white, this vegetable comes in a wonderful pallet of colors - including purple, yellow, and the very popular green romanesco.

Buying. When purchasing cauliflower, look for compact heads with no brown spots and crisp outer leaves. These days you are likely to find cauliflower conveniently cut into florets and sold in a plastic bag. Keep in mind that vegetables sold this way quickly lose their natural freshness.

Storing. Uncut cauliflower can be stored in a loose plastic bag for several days (even a week) in the vegetable keeper of your refrigerator.

Cooking Tips. A few teaspoons of lemon juice can help white cauliflower to retain its color while cooking and adding a piece of bread to the cooking water might help to absorb some of that robust odor this vegetable is famous for. You can also eat it raw or lightly blanched - perhaps in a salad or as a dipping vegetable.

Freezing. To freeze this vegetable for use in different cauliflower recipes, you must first blanch it. Otherwise, because of some of the chemicals it contains, it will deteriorate even in the freezer.

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