Cauliflower

While this sandwich is not one of our top sellers, it has its fervent followers, like those of the anchovy sandwich (see page 68). Taking our inspiration from the traditional New Orleans muffaletta—the sandwich of salty meats and tangy olive salad on a thick round roll—we often pair a fresh smoked salami similar to a sopressata with a drier saucisson sec. But you can customize your sandwich for your palate with your own favorites: prosciutto, mortadella, pancetta—any salumi will stand up nicely to the myriad flavors that burst from the marinated cauliflower salad. Don’t let the name cauliflower dissuade you—this is not the boiled bane of your childhood. Rather, it’s a textured mix of tastes in a bold marinade, with raisins and caraway seeds.

Turn ordinary chicken and cauliflower into a flavor sensation with curry powder and tangy yogurt. Serve over couscous, noodles, or rice.

To vary this flavorful dish, serve the sauce over another kind of pasta or brown rice.

If you’re in the habit of throwing away broccoli stems, or even saving them for soup, I’d like you to try cooking broccoli this way. The stems are delicious, and if you peel them, they’ll cook in the same time as the florets. Nothing could be simpler than this way of preparing broccoli—after a quick boiling, just plunk the pieces into the hot oil and let them go till they’re tender. You can skip the boiling step and add the raw broccoli directly to the oil and garlic, keeping more of the nutrients intact. In that case, add some water to the skillet along with the broccoli, and add more from time to time as they cook.

The same principle I use to bring out the cauliflower’s sweetness in this sauce—cooking raw cauliflower in olive oil—works well if you’d like to make cauliflower as a side dish. In that case, cut the cauliflower into individual florets rather than small pieces. You might want to use a little fresh oregano here, but parsley fits right in. Finishing this dish, like the Linguine with White Clam and Broccoli Sauce on page 122, is a bit of a balancing act. Bread crumbs will continue to thicken the sauce as it simmers, so be careful—it’s easy to end up with a sauce that’s too thick. On the other hand, if you don’t add enough bread crumbs, the sauce will be too watery. If either of these is the case, remember, you’re in control. Simply add a little hot stock or pasta-cooking water if the sauce is too thick. If it’s not thick enough, add bread crumbs—a little at a time, because it takes a few seconds for them to do their thing.

There is not much to peel in celery, just the strings that run along the ribs that can be annoying to eat. To remove them, I take a peeler and lightly run it along the back of the celery rib. Another way to remove them is with a paring knife. When you are trimming the base or the top of the stalk, don’t just chop away, but gently hold the stalk in your hands and cut from the inside of the stalk to the outside without cutting all the way through. Just before finishing the cut, pull the knife toward you and the strings should peel off down the length of the stalk.

Few dishes are as soul-satisfying and luxurious as a buttery-rich potato puree or mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes, but I know that they’re not particularly good for me. Cauliflower puree makes a truly superb substitute.

There are two basic types of potato salad: mayonnaise-based and sugar-and-vinegar-based. I have always preferred the latter because of the sweet-and-sour element—plus it has bacon in it. This alluring sweet-and-sour salad replaces not-so-nice white potatoes with sweet potatoes (much nicer for you), and the texture of the salad has been bulked up with cauliflower.

Swapping the traditional crown of mashed white potatoes for a topping of seasoned cauliflower puree made with Greek yogurt saves a load of calories and carbs—enough to enjoy this English pub dish with a nice pint, if you like.

Béarnaise is one of the classic French sauces. Its standard formulation includes a lot of butter and egg yolks. In this version, I kept the licorice-tasting tarragon that’s a hallmark of the sauce and let the fat and calories go.

Few dishes are as tasty and flavorful as a good curry. Unfortunately, the amount of ghee (clarified butter) and full-fat yogurt used in a typical curry makes for a lot of XXL T-shirts. Here, lean, tender beef, intense seasoning, lots of fresh vegetables, and 5%-fat yogurt make for a skinny jeans day instead.

Chinese food has always been a favorite of mine—and apparently of just about everyone else in America. Even in the smallest towns, there is almost always a Chinese restaurant. The balance of sweet/sour/spicy flavors—and the fact that it’s already cut up into easy-to-eat bite-size pieces—might be part of it. Making restaurant-style Chinese food healthy means getting rid of the sugar first, and then the fat. Using a large nonstick pan over high heat reduces the fat. A good low-fat, sugar-free Asian stir-fry sauce does the rest.

Jerk is a style of cooking native to the island of Jamaica that transforms ordinary chicken into a flavorful, highly aromatic eating experience. Meats are dry-rubbed with a spice mixture called jerk seasoning, then grilled. This seasoning relies principally on two elements: allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers (among the hottest peppers on earth). Typically, whole pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken are barbecued over wood—usually over the wood of the allspice tree. The skin is omitted here—and with that goes about 80 calories per portion.

If ever there was a dynamic duo of destructive caloric forces, cheese and potatoes is it. But they taste sooo good together, we dive in anyway. This potato-free cheese and “potato” soup reunites the duo but tames them to a mere shadow of their former fatness.

Make this delicious soup in the summer, when you can use corn that was picked that morning. Corn is loaded with sugars and carbs, but that’s why we like it so much. I incorporated cauliflower in this soup to reduce the carb count and to add body, without adding the starch and calories of potatoes.

Frittata is a dish I have eaten and served for my entire life. It was always there just in case we were hungry or if an unexpected guest dropped by. It’s made with fresh eggs and whole vegetables, nothing unhealthy. I never thought of it as unhealthy or fattening. But at 20 grams of fat per portion, it’s not entirely benign. This dish was a little easier than most to make healthier because it starts out in a good place—but why not have fewer calories without sacrificing flavor?

Here again you can add in up to 1 pound Italian bulk sweet sausage, cooked and crumbled, and this becomes a hungry-man (or -woman) supersize meal!