Monday, March 28, 2011

Fried Cauliflower Wraps with Lemon Garlic Mayo

I had no idea fried cauliflower could ever make a fantastic sandwich. Ok honestly, I had no idea cauliflower would go well in a sandwich at all.

Ah, but now I know, and my life (or taste buds) have changed for the better. Though now I want one of these babies all the time and I’m not sure how healthy all that fried cauliflower will be in the long run.

Crusing through New York’s own Serious Eats a few weeks back I came across a fried cauliflower sandwich from Rainbow Falafel & Shawarm. They thought it deserved some love and so did I, but with no recipe provided, I had to make up one of my own.

The fried cauliflower part comes from Food.com. The rest I threw together as a compliment for those tasty tender breaded veggies. Rainbow Falafel & Shawarm uses a tahini sauce on their sandwiches, but I thought lemon-garlic would go well here.

Fried Cauliflower Wraps with Lemon Garlic Mayo
4 to 5 large tortillas or pitas of choice
Fried cauliflower, recipe below
Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise, recipe below
Iceberg lettuce, shredded
Tomato slices
Onion slivers
Salt & pepper

Warm the tortillas in the microwave between two napkins. Place one tortilla on a plate and top with cauliflower, lettuce, tomato slices, onion slivers, salt and pepper. Drizzle with the mayo. Fold up bottom and roll into a burrito. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise
1 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced well
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika

Mix all the ingredients together. Chill until ready to use.

D
eep Fried Cauliflower
1 head cauliflower, washed and broken into bite-size florets
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 dash cayenne pepper (use more if you like spicy stuff)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Oil (for deep frying)

1. Preheat fryer oil to 375.

2. Place the beaten eggs, milk and salt in a shallow bowl (or a large baggie).

3. In a separate shallow bowl (or another large baggie), mix together flour, cheese, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne, and pepper.

4. Place florets into egg mixture and toss (or shake baggie) to coat well.

5. Remove and place into flour mixture and toss (or shake baggie) to coat well.

6. Fry in batches for 4 - 6 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Drain on paper towels and lightly salt.

Deep Fried Cauliflower recipe by Margie99 from Food.com. Lemon Garlic Mayonnaise, pita recipe and photographs by Laura Flowers.



22 comments:

La Bella Cooks said...

I'm afraid the fried cauliflower would never make it into the wraps! The garlic mayo sounds fabulous as well.

Velva said...

As soon as I saw fried cauliflower....I thought that would be a great sandwich-the lemon garlic mayo is a really nice addition.

Awesome post.

Velva

Sue said...

Pretty much, fried anything sounds good to me:) The lemon garlic mayo sounds out of this world! Have a great week, Laura.

Laura said...

Fried cauliflower! Sounds delicious! And the lemon garlic mayo sounds super refreshing and delicious. I can't wait to try this one - what an original sandwich wrap! Thanks for sharing!

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Oh Laura - Your cheery and colorful photo brightened my day. Please come and cook for me.

:)
ButterYum

Emily@VitaNostra said...

This looks amazing! I definitely need to try this.

Joanne said...

Let's make a deal. I am going to take a trip down to Rainbow Falafel and Shawarma. And I am going to sample this fried cauliflower sandwich. And I shall report back. The end. And if it's really truly everything I think you dreamed it would be...then when you come to NYC, we shall go there. End of story. Although your version looks pretty damn amazing. So I'll of course have to test drive it first. For comparison's sake.

Chelsea said...

WOW. I don't even like cauliflower and I would down this! I'm really curious to try deep fried cauliflower now.

scrambledhenfruit said...

Cauliflower is not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about a sandwich, but you've made it sound (and look)really tempting! This is something I'm going to have to try now. :)

Veronica said...

I love your food tastes! This is soooo something I would love. I hope I remember to try it. The mayo reminds me of the lemon dipping sauce for the artichokes you posted a long time ago. I finally finally tried that by the way, and it was SO SCRUMPTIOUS! You were absolutely right and I'm so glad I remembered it when I bought my first fresh artichoke on a whim and was wondering what to do with it. I wasn't thrilled with the artichoke by itself but ANYTHING would have been good in that sauce and I was sad when both ran out.

Peggy said...

I've never even thought of fried cauliflower by itself, let alone a sandwich! Definitely going to be trying this out very soon though!

Pink Little Cake said...

I am not a cauliflower fan but now I am craving this yummy wrap. I love the lemon garlic mayo recipe.

Carolyn Jung said...

Never would have thought they were fried cauliflower. Yum! I bet they are crispy and creamy wonderful.

My Medifast said...

Well how smart is this wrap, deep fried cauliflower, so different, can't wait to try. I am thinking of even just the deep fried cauliflower, nice idea.

Krysta said...

These look insane! With the lemon mayo? Oh yeah! Can't wait to try!

Unknown said...

This sounds fabulous, I love all of your recipe choices

Anonymous said...

Nice work! Cauliflower is finally getting some love!

PS this looks delicious

Unknown said...

That looks lovely!

Charisse said...

Seriously I never would have thought of that! I bet it was soooo good...and hey...it's still a vegetable even if it is fried right?!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

I've never seen a wrap like this and it sounds amazing, Laura! I just tried cauliflower "steaks" for the first time and those were yummy too!

The Addicted Baker said...

Just wanted to let you know that I referred you in my favorite blogs. Could you return the favor? Thanks dear! http://theaddictedbaker.blogspot.com/p/favorite-blogs.html

cailen ascher said...

wow! deep fried cauliflower sounds divine!

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