Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

Hi Shel! We love it. The way I do it is to break it up into medium-sized to smaller but not tiny, florets and toss lightly with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Then I roast it along with some loose (large) garlic cloves in their skins (also tossed in olive oil) at 450 degrees until browned. I stir occassionally. That takes about 20-30 minutes or a tad longer, I admit, I've never timed it. I just check every 5-8 minutes after the first 15.

Then I just put in the robot coupe or else use my stick blender and puree it while it's still hot along with the garlic (I remove the garlic skin first). Season to taste and add a tbsp of butter at the end. It's delicious. Maybe 2tbsp of fat for a whole head of cauliflower (1tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp butter) and you could probably do it with less actually. If it's too dry, you can add a bit of yogurt or buttermilk or cream or cream cheese lol! I have found that roasting adds a beautiful brown nuttiness to it and helps to dry out the water that cauliflower is prone to producing/absorbing during wet cooking methods.

Let me know if you try it and like it!

you can sub anything for the cream or butter if you cook the florets in lowfat chicken stock or veg.

Surprise South Beach Mashed 'Potatoes' - Allrecipes

Hi Shel,

you can obtain mash potato texture by boiling diced celeriac (half inch-20 minutes) which, you can mash and add to the mash cauliflower.

Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke can also work.

Both celeriac and sunchokes have complex carbohydrates that are very beneficial and more healthy than potato starch.

Luc

I love this dish. For about six years I was eating one form or another of low carb. Now that I'm more "South Beach" in my eating, I've cut the fat by adding low fat sour cream or cream cheese, or just adding Smart Balance margarine and skipping the heavier dairy. I like Luc's suggestion of adding less starchy root veggies. I have to forego parsnips (too sugary for a pre-diabetic), but they'd be delicious in a mash as well.

shel after roasting and smashing if you need additional fluid which I don't think you will, you can even add a bit of chicken stock to loosen it up instead of butter.

Luc is right on with veggies to add to the cauli. Celeriac is awesome and have also done it with a puree of Jer Arts. very good too! I've also added some rutabaga and I've done a melange of roasted turnips, cauli and rutabaga. I have added corn when I've wanted to make a fake KFC bowl. Like Mezza I was low carb for about 6 years before developing a health problem where I've had to really restrict protein. I'm afraid I've swung to the other end and now shudder to think of my blood glucose! :eek: But that phase will be coming to an end soon and I think will end up with So Beach or the Zone back. Not sure which yet will depend on how much protein I get to have per day. Love the complex carb root veggies though! I just don't miss potatoes with them.

I also make a "cauli salad" like potato salad using the roasted cauli florets. I just follow my grandmom's original potato salad recipe and in place of the potatoes, add my roasted cauli. People actually pick it to eat over other potato salads!

Hi Shel (you are welcome), Mezzaluna and Bluezebra,

I never make ordinary mashed potatoes anymore. I always add celeriac and/or Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes). I cannot emphasis enough how complex carbs are healthy (in my classes and column). Complex carbs are digested slowly to spare ones insulin and also it feeds microbes lower in your gut which also helps insulin and carb metabolism.

Celeriac (AKA celery root) are getting more and more popular. They keep like potatoes or in the fridge.

Sunchokes, they look like ginger roots. Place them in a sealed bag and they keep well in the refrigerator that way. In Québec and North Eastern USA, sunchokes grow wild. It was a staple starch vegetable during winter months for the Natives. I planted some in my garden this year.

other ideas: I use thinly sliced Sunchokes in my stir fry. They keep crispy like water chesnuts.

I think both of these vegetables are being rediscovered. Look for firmness, like potatoes, that's basically it for judging quality.

Good luck!
Luc

Sounds divine shel! Thanks for giving us the heads up! I have done cauli many ways (steam in micro and stove top, boiling/blanching, using fresh, using frozen) and I keep coming back to the roasted method simply because of the development of the nuttiness which I can't get enough of!!

I use this cooking method for cauli that is not only pureed but also I make a cauli based curry that is lip smackin delicious. In fact, it's on the menu for tonite! I also use the roasted cauli to make a faux tato salad that makes people really excited when they taste it! They often can't figure out how I got the tatos to taste that way! LOL, there aren't any tatos in it! :D

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.

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.

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.

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.