[1] It looks like mashed potatoes, but it’s mashed cauliflower (photo © Chef Wave).

[2] A beautiful head of cauliflower. Don’t throw away the stalk: cut, cook and mash it with the rest (photo © Jennifer Schmidt | Unsplash).

[3] You can use colored cauliflower, of course (photo © Sid Wainer & Son | Facebook).

[4] For more garlic flavor, use minced fresh garlic instead of garlic powder (photo © Tijana Drndaski | Unsplash).

You just can’t eat too many brassicas. The plant family of cruciferous vegetables, Brassica, contains nutritional powerhouses that are packed with potent, cancer-fighting phytonutrients (antioxidants). Members include arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, horseradish/wasabi, kale, kohlrabi, mizuna, mustard greens, radish, rapeseed/canola, rapini, rutabaga, tatsoi, turnips, and watercress, among others.

It’s easy to eat a cup or more daily of veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, especially if you snack on the raw florets with a yogurt dip.

Thanks to My Chef Wave for the recipe. Here are two related recipes from The Nibble archives:

 
There are more cauliflower recipes below.

February 17th is National Cabbage Day.
 
 
RECIPE: MASHED CAULIFLOWER & GARLIC

The chef used the Intermix immersion hand blender to make whisking the potatoes a cinch.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. STEAM fresh cauliflower until tender but crisp. If using frozen cauliflower, prepare according to package directions.

2. HEAT the oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add onion and garlic, stirring often until the onion is softened.

3. ADD the flour, whisking constantly, about 1 minute. Gradually add the milk, pepper, and parsley. Whisk until thick and smooth. Remove from heat and pour over cauliflower.

4. GARNISH with a pat of butter and parsley sprinkled on top. (Tip: because there was parsley in the potatoes, we used dill for the garnish.)
 
 
MORE CAULIFLOWER RECIPES

 
 
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*For more intense garlic flavor, substitute an equal amount of freshly minced garlic. Or, use one medium-sized fresh garlic clove for every 1/8 teaspoon needed. You can also use an equal amount of granulated garlic.

For the tea lover, may we recommend Adagio Teas’ “12 Days Of Christmas” in tea? On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me… a most festive and delicious set of teas! The 12 Days of Christmas Gift Set from Adagio Teas: a delicious and jolly selection of tea blends in individual pouches. There’s an assortment of black, green, herbal and rooibos teas, a different variety for each of the 12 Days of Christmas.

The brightly red metal tins are packed into an equally colorful box that will delight the eye as soon as the wrapping comes off. But the merrymaking doesn’t end there!

It’s a gift that keeps on giving. The lovely reusable tins, 3.75″ x 2.25″ x 3/8″, can be lined up to create a holiday scene, or can hang as ornaments, empty or full (photo #2), this year and each year going forward.
 
 
THE 12 TEAS OF CHRISTMAS

The 12 teas in this holiday lineup of teas are White Pear (white tea), Peacan Turtle (rooibos), Lavender Lemon (herbal tea), Candy Cane (black tea), Golden Monkey (black tea), Jasmine Pheonix Pearls (green tea), Blue Mango (herbal tea), Cream (black tea), Cha Cha (herbal tea), Earl Grey Bravo (black tea), Fruit Medley (herbal tea), and Nutcracker (rooibos tea).

Each blend of tea was selected to correspond with its piece of the song—for example, for the first line, “a partridge in a pear tree” song lyric becomes “a partridge in a white pear tea.”

Each tin contains one single-serving pouch of tea.

 
It’s a tea-licious gift, for $24.00

Get your 12 Days Of Christmas Tea at Adagio.com.
 
 
SING ALONG TO “THE 12 TEAS OF CHRISTMAS”

Sing along with The 12 Days Of Christmas.

Sung by The King’s Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, it’s the most glorious sound and visual treatment of “The 12 Days Of Christmas” on YouTube.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEA
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF TEA

[1] A delightful gift of teas with 12 reusable tins. After the tea is gone, use them for spices, pins, whatever (all photos © Adagio Teas).

[2] The recipient can use the tea tins as tree ornaments this year…and each year going forward.

[3] The tins slide open, each revealing a pouch of fine tea. You’ll find quite a few ways to reuse the tins.

[1] They’re called blue, but they’re [obviously] purple (photo © High Mowing Organic Seeds).

Are you a person who likes to change things up, innovate, generate delight, dazzle the kids? Well, here’s a game-changer for Thanksgiving (or any day of the year): blue mashed potatoes. They’re actually purple in color, but we’ll stick with the industry name: Adirondack blue potatoes. Beyond mashed, think blue baked potatoes. Roasted potatoes. Boiled potatoes. Potato salad.

The large, oblong tubers taste like regular potatoes.

 
These gorgeous potatoes are striking on the table.

And there’s also Adirondack Red!
 
 
ADIRONDACK RED POTATOES

This beautiful red potato has red flesh, which turns a light shade of pink when boiled. As with Adirondack Blue, it’s excellent for baking, boiling, mashing, roasting, and potato salad.

The red pigment is betacyanin, another powerful antioxidant that is red-violet and also colors beets, red cabbage, and many other plants. It’s a much more common pigment in the plant kingdom than the blue anthocyanidin and anthocyanin*.
 
NOTE: The skins of both Blue and Red are thin, so scrub them gently.
 
 
DEVELOPED BY SCIENTISTS AT CORNELL

Thanks go to Walter de Jong, Ken Paddock, and Robert Plaisted, potato-genetics scientists at the Cornell University School of Integrated Plant Science Plant Breeding & Genetics Section. They released Adirondack Blue in 2003 after many years of development and testing. (The potatoes are non-GMO).

They focus on the genetic improvement of the potato, both by conventional and molecular genetic means. (Note that this does NOT mean genetically modified organisms. These potatoes are Non-GMO.)

Shortly after Adirondack Blue, they released Adirondack Red, Keuka Gold, and Yukon Gem, all huge successes grown in the Northeast by specialty potato farmers.

Adirondack and Keuka are both places in the Northeast. The Adirondack Mountains are a range in northeastern Upstate New York, Keuka is one of the major Finger Lakes in New York State.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF POTATOES
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF POTATOES
 
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*Anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that can lower risks of heart and neurological diseases. But don’t use that as an opportunity to over-indulge! Anthocyanidin and anthocyanin are two types of red-blue plant flavonoids, mostly found in flowers and fruits of higher plants. The main difference between them is that anthocyanin is a water-soluble vacuolar pigment, whereas anthocyanidin is the sugar-free counterpart of anthocyanin [source]. Here’s more about antioxidants.