This Is Ina Garten's Ingenious Trick For Cutting Cauliflower
Cauliflower was the vegetable of the moment for a long time, and it's still a really popular pick for many. But, if you struggled to work with a whole head of the veggie in the kitchen, you were not alone. A lot of home cooks had just accepted the fact that slicing into a head of cauliflower meant tiny little pieces of the florets bursting out in every direction. Food52 described the phenomenon best as a "confetti-like spray."
The Barefoot Contessa has all of the solutions though. After all, cooking well is all about having the right techniques and tools. One viewer wrote Ina Garten and asked her how to cut cauliflower without getting it absolutely everywhere. In a video she posted to Instagram, Garten said she thought to herself, "Why does it get all over your kitchen?" She said she then realized it happens when you cut straight through the top of the cauliflower head (via Refinery29).
Cut the cauliflower this way instead
So, instead of going in hot with a knife in hand, Garten described the best way to actually cut cauliflower. It isn't from the top, and it isn't from the side either. So, if you are used to trying to rake up tiny white scrapes of the vegetable and you use one of those approaches, that's the problem.
Instead, Garten explains in her video that you need to turn the cauliflower head over so the stem is facing up. Next, cut around the core so you can easily take it out. After that, you're left with smaller fractals of the core, which you can cut loose. Once the head is divided up into smaller pieces, cut through the little stems. You should end up with perfect florets that are much easier to handle without the mess.
So pick up a whole cauliflower the next time you go to the grocery store and give this technique a try. You should find it a lot better and you will likely end up saving money when you avoid buying more processed pre-cut cauliflower florets.