It’s not often that you come across a new vegetable. The first time I saw Fioretto at a market in Chinatown I thought it must be some kind of weird overgrown cauliflower. It turns out it’s a relatively new hybrid that combines the best of broccoli and cauliflower. In addition to Fioretto, it’s also called stick cauliflower, flowering cauliflower, Chinese cauliflower and kaurifurore. It has thinner sweeter tops than cauliflower, and stems similar to broccoli which are sometimes white and other times pale green. The stems deepen in color when cooked.
The hybrid was developed in Japan in 2012 by a seed company and I started noticing it the past year or so but couldn’t find much information about it. Once I tried cooking it, I became a fan. Because it’s less dense, it’s easy to cook and lends itself well to raw, steamed or stir fried recipes. One of the ways I particularly like preparing it is by roasting it with olive oil, salt and garlic. Like traditional cauliflower it develops a very appealing sweet flavor when cooked. It’s a great side dish, but also good tossed with pasta or in a roasted vegetable salad served either warm or at room temperature.
I’ve seen Fioretto at both farmer’s markets and frequently in Asian produce markets and it’s also distributed by Melissa’s and Specialty Produce. Like other brassicas it’s high in vitamin C, dietary fiber and potassium. If you’ve tried it, let me know in the comments.
Roasted Fioretto
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head of Fioretto broken into small pieces, about 4 cups when sliced
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch of kosher salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Break the vegetable into bite sized florets and toss in a bowl with olive oil, garlic and salt. Place on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until tender and brown in spots.
Enjoy!
