Purplicious & Golden Cauliflower

This idea comes up a lot when parents are talking about their picky-eater children. In our house my kids aren’t picky, they’re just not big eaters (you know the whole thing about the cobbler’s kids….) I am thankful that they’ll eat pretty much anything, but the daily grind of getting them to sit down and eat is, well, a grind. So, I remembered a friend saying-- or maybe I read about it in a magazine, or a book, I can’t remember-- anyway, the idea is to have your child accompany you to the market and pick out a fruit and veggie each. If they have some “ownership” over what’s being served, they might be more likely to eat it. Well, at least one of my children is usually with me at the market so I thought I’d give this a whirl. About halfway down the veggie aisle at Walter Stewart’s the other day, my little one laughed at the brightly colored cauliflower on display. So, we popped a purple and orange head into the cart and went on our merry way. And then I totally forgot it was in our produce drawer, until tonight when my little one who claimed he was too sick to go to school, is hitting an all-time record for inquiring, “Mama? Mama? Mama?” all day long. It’s time to pull out the mealtime excitement! Colored cauliflower! Exciting! (Ladies, I am being facetious here…) But since the color held true after roasting, it was kind of different on the plate…and did get chomped up alongside the regular green broccoli “trees”. One of my kids even asked for more. Bonanza!

Roasted Purplicious & Golden Cauliflower

Preheat oven to 400. Wash cauliflower and chop into 1-2” chunks. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sea salt and toss in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet (pictured above, before going into the oven). Roast for 20 minutes or so, until it gets crispy edge and is tender…but not soft. No one wants mushy veggies!

That's what it looked like, after roasting. And here's what went down the hatch tonight...a colorful dinner to be eaten with little fingers:

A sample of Roasted Purplicious & Golden Cauliflower + our standard Roasted Broccoli "trees", a scoop of hummus and organic blue corn tortilla chips for dipping, cherry tomatoes, steamed green bean "swords", and some Bell & Evans Rotisserie chicken.