Orange cauliflower

Orange cauliflower — sold as Cheddar cauliflower — is the high-carotene colour form of the curd-forming brassica, its dome built from the same dense, arrested flower buds as a white head but flushed a vivid cheddar to pumpkin orange instead of staying pale. The colour is no dye and no trick of cooking but pigment in the living tissue: a mutation that lets the curd hoard beta-carotene, the orange carotenoid behind carrots and apricots, so a single raw floret carries far more provitamin-A than a white one. The flesh is a touch creamier and slightly sweeter than white cauliflower, milder in its cabbage-sulfur edge, and the orange deepens rather than fades when the head is roasted or steamed.