Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

[bluezebra]

Well I usually use a prepared curry paste cuz I'm sometimes lazier than I sould be. I use the Patek brand? But I was out this last time and so I "poured seeds" into a small frying pan and roasted them, then ground them. From memory they were about 1:1 to each other and the seeds I did were:

Coriander
Cumin
Mustard (Yellow)
Fennel
2" of Cinnamon Stick

Then blended all in my coffee grinder that I use for spices.

Then combined with:
Turmeric
Saffron threads (just a pinch)
Ground ginger
Red Pepper flakes
Allspice

So once that was made I put it into an empty spice bottle that I have to save for multiple uses. As I told Oregon Yeti, I have no idea how authentic it is/was...I was lacking several things real curries asked for like:
Curry leaves
Fenugreek
Allspice berries
Cardamom
Star Anise
Caraway

So I just winged it with my own spices!

Then I take a large onion, finely diced carrot, celery if you want (mirapoix with much more onion ratio to anything else), sliced mushrooms and a couple of hot chilis (fresh and your choice), and garlic and saute in butter til soft but not colored. I like to see my onions after cooking so I will do two kinds of dice...a fine chop and also a course chop. I don't clarify my butter cuz the browned nuttiness of the butter adds to the flavor. Then I will add a couple of tablespoons of the curry powder (make it as strong or weak as you prefer) and stir around to kinda make a thickened base. Add your roasted cauliflower (I like the florets small so that there is more ratio to browned flesh than white pulp). Add coconut milk to the desired consistency. Let it simmer. Adjust for salt and pepper. Add green peas in the last 5 minutes of cooking and serve over basmati rice. At the last minute, I sometimes will add a seeded and roughly diced tomato.

For condiments I will serve toasted pumpkin seeds or other toasted seeds, toasted unsweetened coconut, and dried currants and also chopped cilantro or chopped mint and sometimes both. I also usually have a little mango chutney and green tomato relish on the side and like to serve it with a flatbread.

It's soooo comforting. And it tastes meaty and gives that meat satisfaction even though it's all veggies.

Hope you will try it and let me know how you like it! If you don't like certain of the spices above, just omit or back off of them. I think that any combination of these work.

[pepper]

Any ideas on how to get kids to enjoy this? In trying to get my family to eat more healthy food, I tried making this instead of mashed potatoes and it didn't go over that well.

[Luc_H]

Originally Posted by pepper

Any ideas on how to get kids to enjoy this? In trying to get my family to eat more healthy food, I tried making this instead of mashed potatoes and it didn't go over that well.

Hi Pepper,

what worked for my kids is I started to combine potatoes and celeriac (cooked together and mashed with butter, milk garlic powder) for every 3 potatoes use one potato equivalent of celeriac.

The difference is almost unnoticeable. Then increase the ratio after you have that 3 or 4 times. Add cauliflower to the mix and/or sunchokes (little by little). Eventually mashed potatoes will be a thing of the past.

Celeriac and sunchokes have very good complex carbohydrates. Very healthy compared to starchy potatoes.


Luc H.

[shel]

Originally Posted by pepper

Any ideas on how to get kids to enjoy this? In trying to get my family to eat more healthy food, I tried making this instead of mashed potatoes and it didn't go over that well.

As I play with this concept more and more, it seems that the cauliflower lends itself to many varieties of flavor-enhancing ingredients. Try what Luc suggests, but don't be afraid to add other ingredients to the mashed cauli. Next up at my house is lemon garlic roasted broccoli, and then some finely diced poblano peppers, and at some point a horseradish sauce. Those are flavors I like. What sort of flabvors does yourkid like? Try adding those to the cauli.

Shel

[pepper]

Thanks for the great suggestions Luc and Shel. When I tried this before I didn't think of adding other great ingredient. I was just following a rather bland recipe.

[shel]

Originally Posted by pepper

Thanks for the great suggestions Luc and Shel. When I tried this before I didn't think of adding other great ingredient. I was just following a rather bland recipe.

Just a quick thought, although I've not tried it yet - maybe, instead of milk or cream or butter, you can add some good quality coconut milk and a little dried coconut, toasted or not. There's a coconut curry marinade I sometimes use with cauli, and that gave me the idea. Since kids tend to like things on the sweet side, the coconut milk and dried coconut flakes might be worth a try. Let us know how it works if you try it.

Shel

[pepper]

I tried the toasted coconut. That was a great idea. It gave it a sweeter flavor like you said, and it changed the texture too. I think that helped as well. Thanks again for the great suggestions.