What menu item are you most excited about right now?
"The cauliflower — winter gets a bad rap for being an uninspiring produce season, but how can you say that when gardens are sprouting gems like purple, green, and cheddar cauliflower? With an ingredient this bold, you want to treat it simply to preserve its allure. Instead of chopping it into tiny florets and blanching it, we sliced it into thick slabs and seared each side until it turned a glistening hue. Cooking it this way brings out the cauliflower’s natural sweetness and allows for caramelization, which adds a rich nutty flavor.

Project and media manager Kate Puhala ogles the pretty — and tasty — cauliflower.