Photo Credit: Mann Packing Company

From those wonderful folks who gave you broccolini comes a brand-new vegetable, Caulilini® baby cauliflower. It’s a new offering from Mann Packing Company in Salinas, California, and it took over two years of field trials for them to get it right. Mann is hoping it will be another vegetable home run on the same level as Broccolini®, which they introduced to the United States in 1998.

Even with a brand-new name, it’s still just another member of the brassica family tree. Also known as “baby cauliflower,” Caulilini is an Asian-style variety that has long, edible stems and loose yellow-tinged florets. If you’ve already discovered the joys of cooking with Broccolini, you’ll find it’s an easy swap of this new veg into existing recipes for blistered broccolini, stir-fried broccolini or broccolini slaw.

Chefs weigh in

In a VegNews article, Chef Robert Dasalla talked about experimenting with the new vegetable at his San Jose, California restaurant The Table. He said he was impressed with Caulilini’s sweet and decidedly un-cauliflowerish taste (no strong aroma, no hints of sulphur). “Anything that’s new in the culinary scene is always exciting for us as chefs because we get to work with something that’s different [and] out of the box that we’ve never had our hands on,” he said.

Simply Dressed® pairings

A fresh new vegetable calls for a fresh new dressing, so consider adding Marzetti’s Simply Dressed® to your latest Caulilini creation. These dressings are made with a minimal number of all-natural, simple ingredients, such as extra virgin olive oil, canola oil and sea salt. Choose from Blue Cheese, Caesar, Lemon Vinaigrette, Ranch, Raspberry Acai Vinaigrette, Italian, Honey Mustard, or Balsamic Vinaigrette.

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Love cauliflower? You need to try caulilini, an entirely new vegetable