Romanesco Cauliflower Stew, Spicy Seitan on English Muffin

We were out all afternoon and stopped to shop at Whole Foods Market on the way home, where my daughter enjoyed vegan pizza. I was left to put a quick late meal together for my Dad, wife, and myself.

Among many other items, we picked up Romanesco cauliflower, an intriguing-looking vegetable that we don't often get. I remembered fondly some nice cauliflower dishes that I have made, such as a pressure-cooked one this past September that I modeled tonight's main course after.

Last night, after dropping off a pressure cooked tofu dish and Jade pearl rice for friends who just had a baby, we stopped at a favorite restaurant, Fiction Kitchen, for dinner. We had some leftover sautéed seitan, perfect for serving on an English muffin. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• Head of Romanesco (or other kind of) cauliflower cut into florets with larger florets halved
• 1 carrot cut into 3/8" slices and then each slice quartered
• Leek; root removed and then about 1 1/2" or so of bottom cut into 1/8" strips (approx. 1/3 to 1/2 cup) and well washed
• 1T ginger
• Vegan bouillon cube
• 1 cup water
• (optional) 1T miso
• (optional) 1/4 t turmeric
• (optional) 1/4 t black sesame seed
• 1/4 t (or to taste) salt; I used "black salt" (kala namak)

Process

• I put all of the ingredients except the turmeric, sesame seed, and salt into my Instant Pot and cooked on high pressure for 2 minutes (it's amazing how well one can cook in so little time when pressure cooking!).
• When I was ready to serve, I slowly let out remaining pressure and mixed in the remaining ingredients.

I also put a bit of mustard on English muffin halves, added the heated seitan leftovers, and topped with hot sauce. Because my Dad doesn't eat leftovers, I served his muffin with heated refried beans.

Results

Every time I pressure cook cauliflower it sure does taste great! We all loved dinner. I'm taking several dinners over to friends this coming week, and am thinking I should prepare some cauliflower dishes for them. This was really good tonight!

Ideas for the future

Nowadays, I rarely have jalapeno or other hot peppers in stock, but a bit of a hot pepper would have been good in the main dish. The ginger was good but maybe a little too subtle - it sounds like a lot, but maybe 2 T of chopped ginger would be good in this dish.

It would be fun to try cooking cauliflower in a waterless way, as well. It seems like pressure cooked cauliflower is a very tasty proposition, and I should try additional vegetable combinations, such as, perhaps, okra, green tomato, or just barely cooked potato.

Finally, I found an interesting sounding cauliflower and citrus salad recipe online. I can easily modify it to be vegan. I don't think that I would have thought of this flavor combination on my own, and should try this recipe.