Mashed “Potatoes”

You know what I REALLY miss? It’s clearly in the title of this post – good mashed potatoes from scratch. Sure, desperate/lazy times called for the instant packets, but nothing really ever compared 100% to scratch. Even more so not comparing…mashed cauliflower. Bleh!

To be fair, I had only ever attempted mashed cauliflower two times before this post, and then just decided to stick to the frozen mashed cauliflower trays from then on out. We would top them generously with cheese to spruce them up a bit. However, I’ve recently become obsessed with the Wholesome Yum website, and they had a recipe that actually looked like it might work. So, I sucked it up and made them.

When I tell you they were creamy, they were! When I tell you they could form stiff peaks if I really wanted to, they could! They were an almost complete facsimile of scratch mashed potatoes. When I was little, my Mom would make mashed potatoes from scratch all the time. She’d use her hand mixer to really get them good and mashed. Then, when she would pull the hand mixer out of them, she’d do it slowly to create an owl. You can see a photo I took of this special Mother/Daughter moment to the right. It’s truly an owl! :)

I don’t write about a recipe I’ve tried unless it actually tastes good. This one, try it! I’ve put the recipe below, but please make sure to check out the original post by clicking here. All of the nutrition facts are on their site. A tip when looking at recipes online – Always read through the first few pages of comments if there are any. You can pick up some good ideas or tricks to make the recipe work with different ingredients.

Enjoy!

Creamy Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head Cauliflower (florets only, stems completely removed)
3 cloves Garlic (minced)
3 tbsp Butter (measured solid, then melted; can also substitute olive oil or ghee for dairy-free)
1 tbsp Full-fat coconut milk (or heavy cream for non-paleo) *I used heavy cream.
3/4 tsp Sea salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 tsp Black pepper (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp Chives (chopped) *I omitted this. Just didn’t have any on hand at the time.

Directions:

Cook the cauliflower on the stove or in the microwave.
Stove method: Boil a pot of water with a tablespoon (14 g) of salt. Add the cauliflower, and simmer until very soft (about 5-6 minutes). Drain well.
Microwave method: Place the cauliflower florets in a large bowl with 2 tablespoons of water. Cover with plastic wrap, so that the plastic is not touching the cauliflower. Microwave on high for about 10 minutes, until very soft, stirring halfway through. Drain well.
Meanwhile, place the garlic, melted butter, and milk/cream into a food processor or high power blender.
Note: If you want to, you can saute the garlic first to mellow the flavor a bit. *I pan fried mine with the butter from the recipe on the stove. That way I melted the butter AND toasted my garlic at the same time.
When the cauliflower is done cooking, drain well. Squeeze out as much extra water as possible. You can do this by wrapping the cauliflower in a towel and twisting, or by pressing a bowl down over a strainer. *A bowl over the strainer worked well. I thought that it might press the cauliflower out the slits, but it did not.
Add the cauliflower to the food processor or blender. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste, and puree again. If it’s thicker than you like, thin out with more milk/cream.
Stir in the chopped chives. *If you are using these.

Random Cat Thought – This old lady and I have lived in a lot of different places over the past almost 19 years. I’ve lived over half of my life with her. I said something to her about it today, but she just looked at me like I was being too sentimental and told me to stop it before I made us both cry.