We already established I like fried foods, right?
But believe me, for the amount of fried foods I have posted on this blog, I do not eat that many of them… maybe like once a week, maybe. I think it’s just that we’re around the holidays here and these are “more or less” permissible things around the holidays… eat fried foods now, diet and exercise in the new year… But I find that if you exercise and eat healthy all the time, as part of your daily routine, you can indulge every once in a while in a fried morsel of crispy goodness.
Enough…
Here are my interpretation of Fried Cauliflower. I learned to eat this, believe it or not, at the salad bar at Ponderosa Steakhouse. The salad bars here in PR offer, in addition to the standard salad fare, corn sorullitos, macaroni and cheese, cooked corn, steamed carrots, and sometimes, fried cauliflower. They’re sooooo tasty. But the secret of their tastiness is in the batter. Let me show you how…
FRIED CAULIFLOWER
1 head of cauliflower, cut in medium sized florets
2 cups whole wheat or spelt flour 2 tbs cornstarch
3 tbs sofrito
1 tbs salt or garlic salt 1 tbs Herbamare herbed salt
a few grinds of cracked black pepper
water – about 2 cups
a few sprinkles of paprika – optional
Canola oil – for frying
- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch and the water. Mix the water slowly, maybe in two batches. The idea is for the batter to be the same consistency as pancake batter.
- Add to the batter, the sofrito, salt, herbed salt and pepper. Add paprika, if using.
- Heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat.
- Dunk the pieces of cauliflower in the batter. Clean the piece of any running batter and place carefully in the hot oil.
- Fry the little morsels until golden brown on all sides. It should take a few minutes – this way the cauliflower will cook/soften a bit and the batter will be golden brown and crunchy.
Eat on their own or dunk in Mayo Ketchup.
Hope you like them!!!
KarmaFree Cooking 
I read this – mouth watering – I was thinking about this recipe I read at “What did you eat” and thought this would be so good with your recipe:
Tomatilla-Cilantro Salsa
(Sunset Magazine)
1 Tablespoon butter or oil
2 Tablespoons flour
3/4 cup roughly chopped tomatillas
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 large poblano pepper, seeded and chopped roughly (You can use canned poblanos or substitute a bell pepper. If using a bell pepper, I would only use half of a large one.)
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup light sour cream
lime juice
salt and pepper
Heat the butter or oil and add the flour, stirring and cooking over medium heat for a minute or two until it’s a smooth paste. Remove from heat and add flour paste, tomatillas, onions, cilantro, poblano, and stock to a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan and heat until boiling and very thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream and add lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. Can be made several days ahead and stored in the fridge.
Hi,
I live the United States Virgin Islands, particularly St. Thomas. My cousin on St. Croix asked me to look for a fried cauliflower recipe online for her, and I found your site.
I noticed that you are from Puerto Rico. I also noticed that you said you get fried cauliflower in Puerto Rico. I was quite surprised to hear you mention Ponderosa because there used to be Ponderosa here many years ago, but it long went out of business.
Anyway, I love fried cauliflower, and years ago I used to eat it often when I ate more of a vegetarian (not completely) diet. Here, fried cauliflower is very popular with the Rastafarians, so I used to get my cauliflower from different Rastafarian take-out places, especially one owned by one of my neighbors.
In addition to sending the recipe to my cousin, I will also try it for myself. I’ve been trying to cook more for myself lately, though I’ve been doing a lot of baking.
Thanks for posting this recipe. Also, whenever I next go to Puerto Rico, I’ll be sure to ask you for recommendations on good vegetarian food there.
Kevin
Kevin
A friend recently gave me a huge whole head of cauliflower from his garden and wanted to try something different besides the usual steamed with butter, salt, and pepper. Your recipe was perfect. Although i did not have any sofrito on hand, so in place of that i used onion and garlic powder along with cayenne pepper instead. It was delicious! Even my boyfriend(who swore he would never eat cauliflower) loved it! Thanks for the recipe.
Kasey
Thank you so much for this recipe! It sounds delicious, AND it’s vegan!! Can’t wait to try it!!