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Cauliflower Adobo
![Cauliflower Adobo](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/31/dining/as-cauliflower-adobo/as-cauliflower-adobo-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1large cauliflower (2½ to 3 pounds)
- Kosher salt
- 2teaspoons black pepper, plus more as needed
- 3tablespoons canola oil, plus more as needed
- ½cup rice wine vinegar
- 5tablespoons soy sauce
- 2teaspoons raw or light brown sugar
- 6garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
- 3bay leaves
- 1Thai chile, halved lengthwise, or ¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
- 3scallions, thinly sliced, for serving (optional)
Preparation
- Step 1
Trim leaves and woody stalk from the cauliflower, then cut through the root into 8 wedges. Season both sides of each wedge with salt and pepper. Reserve any loose cauliflower pieces.
- Step 2
In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Place one layer of the wedges in the skillet cut-side down and cook without moving them until well browned on one side, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate and continue until all the cauliflower is seared, adding more oil as needed. Return all the cauliflower to the pan with uncooked side facing down.
- Step 3
Add ¼ cup water, any loose cauliflower pieces, 2 teaspoons black pepper, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, bay leaves and Thai chile. Cover and let simmer over medium heat until the cauliflower is crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
- Step 4
Uncover, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook, basting the cauliflower occasionally with the sauce, until the cauliflower is tender and the sauce has thickened and reduced to about ¾ cup, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Step 5
Serve the cauliflower with plenty of sauce and a sprinkle of scallions, if using.
- If you plan to eat rice with the adobo, bring 1¾ cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan before you start the recipe. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup long-grain rice, cover, and let simmer on the lowest heat possible for 18 minutes. Proceed with the adobo. Let the rice sit, covered and off the heat, until the adobo is ready. Fluff rice with a fork before serving.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Tips *Break the cauliflower into larger pieces, lightly coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then broil on a cookie sheet to get some color and flavor. Much easier than browning in batches! *Decrease sugar to 1tsp or less if using rice vinegar, 1tsp if using white vinegar. I made this a vegan version for my family, and it was great! I added carrots, browned mushrooms, and sliced bell peppers, and served with sauteed kale and steamed brown rice. It's definitely something I'll make again.
Added sugar to any Filipino adobo is a recent development. Traditional adobo has no added sugars.
Perhaps "core" would be more descriptive than root. Stand the cauliflower up resting on the core (i.e. with the dome at the top). Cut it in half from the top through the core (the bottom). Rest the halves on the flat sides, cut those in half, now you have quarters, cut those in half. Voilà! 8 pieces which may be wedges or may not but that likely won't matter.
Not the first time I've seen that misuse in the cooking section/recipes. NY Times: toothsome means tasty or appetizing, not al dente.
I'm not sure I understand what "cut through the root into 8 wedges" means. Can someone explain?
Usual Filipino adobo uses 1:2 ratio of soy sauce to vinegar or vice versa, depending on preference (and region). If you don't like it too acidic, you may lessen the vinegar.
I seared the cauliflower on an oiled sheet pan along with extra firm tofu and a few green beans to cut down on the oil. Added a splash of coconut milk during simmer.
Other vegetables you can cook adobo style are long beans, green beans, and kangkong/water spinach. I didn't know cauliflower can be cooked this way but why not?
Oh wow, this was scrumptious! I also added sliced chicken breast that I had poached in lemon juice. As my husband and I were scarfing it down and making “mmm’” noises I thought that adding shitake mushrooms would be excelent too. Tomorrow lunch I will serve the remainder of the caulflower with rice and more green sliced onions. Thanks for the great recipe. Caulifower with cheese sauce is now banished at our house.
I followed the recipe and when time to uncover and cook and baste a bit more I added a handful of rice noodles,fresh shiitake,and a cup of homemade chicken broth to make it moist to be served in a bowl. This is an outstanding and fast recipe!
Whenever a cauliflower recipe calls for slicing it into quarters I struggle to make it perfect and then wonder why I didn't just cut it into florets. This recipe too makes that distinction and next time I'll follow my instinct to brown the florets, not the wedges. This also enables the yummy sauce to crawl inside more of the indentations.
Sounds good. Simple and common sense yum. But “toothsome” is used incorrectly.
Ok, I see there are very few gardeners here. Cut whichever way you like per all the previous notes. In any case, you are NEVER cutting through the root, which is the part in the ground. You are cutting the core, as in a cabbage. When you buy either, the whole head you are buying is cut above ground level.
This sounds wonderful; I'm always looking for new cauliflower recipes. Wouldn't it be easier and faster to do this in the oven? I'm thinking roasting pan or sheet pan.
Got in a hurry and just cut up the cauliflower into florets, diced a chicken breast, threw both into a bag with the marinade and roasted at 425 degrees for 45 minutes, until the cauliflower had a nice char on it. Tossed on the scallions at the last minute. My husband loved it - but said he thought it would have tasted even better with a squeeze of lemon juice. (I also left off the bay leaf as I was in a hurry.)
Filipinos don’t put salt when they cook rice.
Made this sans chili and with an extra few grinds of pepper, added some tofu for protein, and served it on rice. The only thing I’ll change next time is to reduce the vinegar just a little.
Noted all the comments about the cauliflower falling apart when cutting 8 wedges. I expected to find the same. So I looked for the densest cauliflower I could find, used my sharpest knife, and got all nice firm wedges.
I made this exactly as written, but using the red pepper flakes option. Also, I only had a smallish cauliflower, which was fine for the two of us. It was absolutely delicious. My husband found it a bit too spicy. I liked the kick. We gave a few bites to our little terrier (sorry to those who disapprove of giving table food to dogs) who will only eat his dinner if he gets a taste of ours. He didn’t mind the heat at all, and loved the cauliflower.
I might have used too much pepper for my taste. Still, this recipe is wonderful! Super savory cauliflower, who would have known?
Adobo is not sweet. Stop adding sugar.
How do I print out a recipe? When I use the print icon it says print but won’t send to my printer.
We cooked this last night and it was truly delicious. Had to substitute red wine vinegar because we didn't have rice wine vinegar and it worked just fine. The chopped scallions added on top for "garnish" was a great addition.
This recipe is a great way to get cauliflower flavorful and delicious. I did have a problem getting it cut into wedges and ended up with quite a few "loose pieces", but as instructed, just threw them in for the braising. The sauce was not quite as thick as I would have liked, so next time, I will take the cauliflower out and continue cooking a few more minutes until it becomes the consistency I want.
This was kind of weird--I did try to follow the recipe carefully. I have not had 'real' adobo, but this had way too much vinegar, so was borderline unpleasant, Cauliflower did carmelize nicely, and with a bit longer cooking than suggested became tender. But the sauce never thickened. I will not try this one again.
I had trouble figuring out how to cut the cauliflower into wedges. I also used less than half the amount of pepper. But all in all, this was very tasty.
Added some grated ginger towards the end and got the thumbs up from my family
Thai chili doesn’t belong in Filipino adobo. Full stop
Found the dish to be too salty, so next time would use low-sodium soy sauce. Like others, I added a couple other vegetables I had in the fridge, bok choi and carrots. This was good, but doubt I'd make it again.
This was excellent. We roasted the cauliflower on parchment paper. That worked well. About 45 minutes at 425. Used a Cascabel pepper. Great pepper with this dish.
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