Orange (and purple) cauliflower

[Duer 157099]

That's what I saw in the produce section the last time I was at the market, so while tempted to purchase both, I only brought home the orange one.

I cooked it up last night and I was really impressed with the amount of influence the visual aspect of food plays!

I'm certain there was no significant taste difference. It's cauliflower fer crissakes, I think they *all* taste the same. I cannot recall ever eating "bad" cauliflower. Unlike with some veggies (corn, tomatoes) that can really vary in flavor.

At first I was reluctant to put butter on it because it already looked so buttery from the color. But I held fast and put the butter and a bit of salt. While eating it, my mind kept expecting, variously: squash, sweet potato, cheddar cheese. But all it ever got was cauliflower (which was fine, of course).

Oh, and my first thought was: Gee, I wonder if this cauliflower is GMO? (hah!) No, but seriously, is it? :shrug: I can't understand the logic in using GMO technology for the sake of a COLOR? Could it be? Or is it some natural variation, perhaps accomplished by good ole Mendalian genetics?

I think I'll pass on the purple one; I can imagine expecting grape and cabbage flavors.

[Warpy]

1. The purple cooks to a green and it's really very nice

Purple cauliflower and purple bush beans are alike in that regard. The purple color is not stable in heat and you're left with a dark green, a good indicator that it's fully cooked.

Purple cabbage is stable with heat, although it helps to add a splash of vinegar to help preserve more of it.

[Duer 157099]

2. Now I'm intrigued to try the purple

knowing that it changes to dark green.

I can't get over how much the color has influenced my perception. I never thought there was anything weird or bland about white veggies, but now comparing to their colorful relatives, I see it.

I've even started to prefer yellow corn to white. Am I becoming a blanco-phobe or something? :shrug:

[Warpy]

3. Try to put blue food coloring in pasta water sometime

The pasta will come out blue and I guarantee it will gag everyone, even though the blue food coloring has added no flavor.

Blue is the one color we're genetically programmed to avoid in food.

[Retrograde]

4. Not GMO

except in the slow old-fashioned way of selective breeding over generations. There's at least one cultivar, Cheddar, that grows this way: my guess is that it's a chance mutation (cauliflower is the unformed flower buds of the plant, and yellow's a common color in this family) that's been selected for (fine a chance mutation you like, keep plant the seeds to see if it breeds true). The same goes for the purple variety, and the lime-green romanesco.

[noamnety]

5. More on these varieties:

Purple Cauliflower

Origin and cultivation: discovered as a spontaneous mutation in the 1980s, and improved through breeding in Denmark
Availability: year-round
Appearance: bright purple color
Flavor: like regular white cauliflower
Trivia: Pigment is from anthocyanin pigments, which since water soluble, will wash out if cooked with too much water


Orange Cauliflower

Also known as: Cheddar Cauliflower
Origin and cultivation: discovered as a spontaneous mutation in 1970 in Canada; improved through breeding at Cornell University
Availability: year-round
Appearance: bright orange color
Flavor: like regular white cauliflower
Trivia: Pigment is from beta-carotene (converts to Vitamin A once you eat it), the same as in orange carrots. If you eat a lot of orange cauliflower, or carrots, or anything else with beta-carotene every day, your skin will turn orange, a condition known as carotenemia


http://www.eatdangerously.com/newfood/chapter_colored_cauliflower.htm

[Duer 157099]

6. Heh, I love this part: "Flavor: like regular white cauliflower" (for both)

That's what I'm sayin'

[Lifelong Protester]

7. I know how you feel, I cannot eat purple or blue potatoes

They look horrible in soup or mashed~sort of a grey color that I think we are also programmed not to like!