Cauliflower Ceviche

Ceviche’ s are very  popular salads in coastal Mexico, Central America and South America. Always made with ultra fresh fish like red snapper, seabass or shellfish that are chopped and marinated in citrus usually lime juice and then garnished with a variety of ingredients. Most common ones being onions, corn, jalepeno, cilantro and avocado. The idea is the acid from the citrus cooks the protein by essentially denaturing the protein without heat, and because no heat is used having super fresh fish is essential.  Every region in South America has their own variation of ceviche, but fresh fish is the base.

Ceviche is perfect on a hot sunny afternoon when you are in no mood to enter the kitchen and turn the stove ON. Cauliflower makes a wonderful substitute for fish, it looks and has a great texture akin to fish. The only hard part is to break the cauliflower into small pieces. I don’t recommend a food processor, doing so gives out a lot of water and that is not what we want.  **Break the cauliflower into florets and further into small pieces about 1-11/2 inches each. It takes sometime but the result is a delicious, healthy and refreshing salad.

Also try this recipe with charred or roasted summer corn or plain cooked black beans. They turn out just as good.

You will need:

4 portions

• 1 small head of fresh cauliflower
• 1 medium red onion thinly sliced and plunged in ice water for 30 minutes
• juice from 2-3 juicy limes, about 1/2 cup
• 1 large ripe avocado pitted scooped and diced
• 1/2 cup washed and chopped cilantro
• sea salt or Himalayan pink to taste
• 1 large or 2 small ripe tomatoes, remove the pulp and seeds save it for another recipe. then dice into cubes
• 1-2 jalapeno, seeds and veins removed and diced only if you want it mild

•  **Prepare the cauliflower as described in the notes above. Bring a large pot of water to boil. In a colander place the cauliflower florets and immerse in the boiling water.Take care while you do this. Or add it directly into the water. Cook the cauliflower for 3 minutes. Remove them and plunge in ice water to cool. Drain and pat dry. Remove the sliced onions from the iced water and pat dry.
• In a mixing bowl add the cauliflower, lime juice and salt. Toss very well. Keep refrigerated for 30 minutes, tossing every few minutes.
• Add the sliced onions, diced tomatoes, and jalapeno. Mix and keep refrigerated  for no more than 1 hour. If you plan on serving later than an hour don’t mix. The veggies get soggy. Right before you want to eat add avocado and cilantro, mix one more time and serve right away in tall glasses with tortilla chips.