Cauliflower recipes prove fall is about more than pumpkin

Fall is harvest season, so there’s no shortage of produce — and there’s no reason you have to stick with pumpkin spice everything, just because Starbucks says it’s the thing.

(One guy did stick with pumpkin spice everything— it wasn’t pleasant.)

Cauliflower is among autumn’s bounty, and it’s pretty fantastic. Not only is it very low calorie, but it is a great source of fiber, Vitamin C and more.

And it goes well with cheese!

We’ve rounded up some of the more thrilling cauliflower recipes around the web, some healthier than others.

Don’t think it’s possible for you to crave cauliflower?

Check these out:

The brilliant foodies over at Food52 have a recipe for a crunchy, cheesy sandwich made with fried cauliflower, Provolone and kale.

Want a showstopper entree? Cut a whole cauliflower into “steaks,” roast them and top them with an olive relish. Yum.

Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen has her own take on the marriage of cauliflower and cheese, which is called, believe it or not, Cauliflower Cheese. (It’s like a British version of a cauliflower gratin.)

Deb’s also got this cauliflower slaw recipe that might seem like a strange combination at first, but the salty, brininess of the capers makes it totally addictive.

And veggie food blogger Heidi Swanson at 101Cookbooks has a pretty genius cauliflower soup recipe in her cookbook, “Super Natural Every Day” — and you can check it out here.

But if simplicity is what you like, we’ve got our own easy roasted cauliflower recipe.

And here’s a tip: When breaking down a cauliflower, cut off the leaves first, then cut out the core while being careful to keep the part you want to eat intact. Then you can cut each floret off individually at the stem, where the vegetable naturally splits. This will prevent those tiny pieces of cauliflower from flying all over the kitchen.

Toss your florets with some olive oil, salt and pepper on a roasting pan or cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven at 425 degrees and when it’s ready, put in the pan.

Check it at 20 minutes — you want the parts of the cauliflower touching the pan to be nicely browned. Once they are, stir them so other parts can get some exposure to the pan. You should be done at around 35 minutes.