Curried orzo & ground beef, turmeric and sweet sprouting cauliflower

You may have or may not have heard of sweet sprouting cauliflower. It is not a super widely spread vegetable but lately I have seen it in supermarkets a lot more than ever before.

What is it sweet sprouting cauliflower?

This sweet sprouting cauliflower was first produced in Japan and it’s a lot sweeter than the traditional cauliflower, it has long stems with tiny little white flower heads.

It is a popular vegetable in China too and they have been using it for some time and it is now also produced here in the UK. Can be consumed raw or cooked especially stir-fry style as it cooks pretty fast, in fact, it doesn’t need much cooking at all, just a matter of a couple of minutes and it’s done!

Kids as well as ourselves the bigger kids, haha, really love it and I have to say it is a lot more appealing and less ‘intimidating’ particularly to children both taste and appearance-wise.

Hello there, the cauliflower haters, try this sweet sprouting cauliflower, you will be way impressed. The beauty of this is that it tastes nothing like cauliflower. It is an absolute promise!?

A little bit about is orzo…

Have you had it before, do you like it?

For those that don’t really know what orzo is – it ultimately is a type of pasta shaped like a larger rice grain and like most pastas, this is also made from semolina, a coarse-ground flour or known also as a durum wheat. It even cooks like pasta but just maybe a dash quicker,  just a dash.

Orzo is commonly used in Mediterranean cuisines like Israeli, Turkish, Greek, some Arabic or Spanish,  oh, and it’s so cute and tasty. My kids call it “cute pasta”. ? They are so right!

It can be served on its own or as part of a salad, soups, ‘risotto-style’ as a pilaf or in a casserole and even stews.  As you can gather, cooking with orzo offers endless possibilities.

Orzo is such a versatile ingredient. My kids also love it boiled in milk for breakfast with some sugar and lemon zest. Whichever way you decide to cook it, you will end up with a delish dish.

We love it in any type of dish but particularly prefer it this way (salad type) that this recipe is all about mainly because it is so easy and quick to make.

This warm salad dish is another one of those that I love making because

• it can be put together in no time,
• it’s healthy,
• it’s really DELICIOUS,
• it is appealing and very appetising.
• good for crowds, really desired by children and so super yummy.

More orzo recipes will follow, so stay tuned!

More salad recipes you may like

If you like this dish, you may also like this quinoa salad or even this lentil salad for a vegetarian option with pulses instead of pasta.

I find this dish a great and easy way of incorporating a few more vegetables in children’s diets. They will just love it!

Tips :

If your ground beef is not the leanest there is, don’t worry. Use the 10-15% fat one and remove some of the excess fat that the meat releases after browning it using paper towels.

I normally pick up a good few pleats of paper towel (make them into snowball shape) and remove the fat by moving these around wiping the bottom of the pan with a spoon. You can do it by hand but you have to be very careful as the oils will quickly get absorbed and reach your fingers. The best and recommended way is using a wooden spoon or a tong. Take my word for it.

Of course, you can skip this if you want to keep the fat in which of course will add to the dish’s taste.

This is it, folks! I really hope you will be hugely enjoying this recipe – just as much as I always do.

Nom, nom, nom… let’s get cooking this curried orzo with been and sweet sprouting cauliflower.