Mashed Cauliflower is a quick and easy substitute for mashed potatoes thats lower in carbs and fat while still totally creamy with no worries about lumps!
We love healthier side dishes including Cauliflower Rice, Rotisserie Chicken Roasted Potatoes and Baked French Fries.
 Mashed Cauliflower
 Mashed CauliflowerNo need to spend time mashing this cauliflower, the food processor does all the work here! And without the starch of the potatoes you’re used to using in mashed potatoes you don’t have to worry about the cauliflower mash being gluey. Plus no potato masher or immersion blender necessary!
This low carb side dish is grain free, creamy and can be made dairy free if you need to. It is keto diet friendly, no-bake, and easy to adjust to your tastes both with add-ins and with potato to cauliflower ratios (if desired)
Okay let’s discuss for a second, yes, mashed potatoes are in fact delicious. While we love them as much as you do, we also love not feeling overfull ten minutes after eating them and these mashed cauliflower are a great alternative.
If you feel like this mashed cauliflower won’t cut it (I think you should try it though, I promise it is DELICIOUS!) you can always go halfsies!
What do I mean? Well, some people who are making the transition from noodles to zoodles, standard rice to cauliflower rice and mashed potatoes to mashed cauliflower need a softer landing at first. When I would cook for clients who were starting a healthy eating plan I started introducing these items slowly.
Cauliflower and Mashed Potato ratios:
At first if introducing mashed cauliflower to someone who is struggling with the flavor make the recipe with 5 parts mashed potatoes to 1 part mashed cauliflower. Make sure to add flavors to these potatoes as you work from 5-1, 4-2, 3-3, 2-4, 1-5 and finally move to all cauliflower.
Best Flavor Mix-Ins for Mashed Cauliflower:
Sometimes people have a hard time with the flavor of cauliflower when their brains are expecting mashed potatoes, The best masking flavors I’ve found are:
- browned butter
- garlic
- roasted garlic
- buttermilk
- cheese (especially sharper, more pungent cheeses like Parmesan)
- sour cream
- bacon
- deeply caramelized onions with butter
- caramelized mushrooms
- sun dried tomatoes
- pesto
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Loaded Mashed Cauliflower:
If you want to make this dish a bit more indulgent you can add in some cream cheese, parmesan cheese, sour cream, olive oil or even extra butter. Some bacon couldn’t hurt either if you’d like it.
How to firm up Mashed Cauliflower:
The firmer you make the cauliflower by squeezing out as much liquid as you can, the more mix-ins you can add without creating a texture that is too soupy.
Another way you can dry out the cauliflower is that once you’ve processed it in the food processor you can add it back to a dutch oven and put it on low heat, stirring occasionally as you cook it, for about 5-6 minutes, naturally thickening it.
Garlic Mashed Cauliflower
If you’d like to make a creamy garlic mashed cauliflower you can steam the cauliflower florets along with the garlic cloves then puree them together since the garlic cloves will soften from steaming as well. This will also mellow the flavor of the garlic so the flavors won’t be as bitter.
BOILING vs. STEAMING Cauliflower:
You can boil or steam your cauliflower when you’re making this recipe (or cauliflower rice for that matter).
I choose to steam my cauliflower florets because I prefer to retain the nutrients in my vegetables that steaming allows for. If you boil them you lose many of the nutrients in the water that you discard.
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower cut into 2" cauliflower florets
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- 4 ounces reduced fat cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
- Add the cauliflower and garlic to a steamer over boiling water and steam for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the steamer and let cool for 2 minutes before adding to the food processor with the buttermilk, cream cheese oil, salt and pepper and processing until completely smooth, about 1 minute.
Nutrition
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