Sunday, May 15, 2022

Peruvian Cauliflower Sauté

 I always wanted to cook some Peruvian dish. Peruvian cuisine is one of the finest in the world, on a par with Greek or Italian, or as my friend from work Lehidyt pointed out, rather comparable with Thai or Mexican for its variety and complexity of ingredients. Whenever I visited Chicago when I lived in the Midwest, I used to have dinner at Taste of Peru, and enjoyed their ceviche and cilantro rice. So on Friday I asked Lehidyt to recommend me a dish that was not too technical, so that with my limited cooking skills I could make it at home. She recommended me to make a simple cauliflower sauté and a website to follow, Buenazo! from YouTube, where I found the recipe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTzQby_axmk), which I cooked without the chicken but turned out amazing.

These are the ingredients I used:

- 1 bag of frozen cauliflower florets 

- 1 medium purple onion cut into thick strips 

- 2 pear tomatoes cut into thick strips 

- 1 red bell pepper cut in thick strips 

- 1 medium Russet potato 

- A dash of soy sauce 

- Chopped cilantro

- Salt 

- Pepper 

- Sunflower and extra virgin olive oil    


These are the preparation steps I followed:

1. First I boiled two cups of water in a pan. When it began to boil and bubbles were visible, I poured the contents of the package of frozen cauliflower florets and covered it, letting it cook for about 15 minutes, after which I set them aside in a glass container. 

2. Next I peeled the medium potato and cut it into long strips that I fried in another pan previously heated with sunflower oil. Once fried and browned, I put them aside in another glass container.

3. In the first pan, once emptied of water and well dried, I sautéed in extra virgin olive oil the onion, the red bell pepper and the two tomatoes, and added the cauliflower florets. I seasoned with salt and pepper and added a splash of soy sauce and covered the pan with the lid. After a while I added the fries, mixed everything together and covered it for a couple more minutes.




It was delicious, finger-licking good, so from now on it will become one of the basic dishes, a new staple in our diet at home, since it is also very healthy. Thanks Lehidyt. ¡Salud and bon appetit!