Natalie Tootie

The other night I was watching Guy Fieri’s cooking show and he made mashed cauliflower and presented it as a healthier alternative to mashed potatoes. For some reason, I really got into this idea. I bought some cauliflower and planned to try it.

Tonight I did it. The recipe is basically boil the cauliflower then stick it in a food processor. There are a few lessons I learned during the process, and I plan on making it much better next time.

Lessons:

Should you boil the cauliflower in milk? No, water will do fine.

Guy Fieri did this, and I tried it, and while it was fine, most of the milk goes to waste and you have to be more careful about it scalding in the pan. I was aware of that and it didn’t happen to me, but the pan was still harder to clean. The nice thing about this is you have nice hot milk to mix in while processing the cauliflower, but the microwave would do that easier and cheaper if you feel you need warm milk.

Does a blender work as well as a food processor? No.

I don’t have a food processor, but this one dish really needs one. The cauliflower gets too firm in a blender and it was a pain in the butt. I had to add too much liquid to get it to blend and it was frustrating. I actually have my eye on a Cuisinart now. We’ll see.

What’s the best way to get the cauliflower out of the water and into the food processor?

Well, for me it was tongs. I hate cleaning strainers and I use tongs all the time so they’re always around.

Be sure to add a little salt, pepper, and butter while processing.

Because of my blender crisis I forgot and added it later, but it would have been marginally better had I remembered it.

So do they taste like mashed potatoes? Yes, the taste exactly like mashed potatoes. It’s pretty amazing. Almost too much, I was hoping they would be a little lighter. But I’m sold. I ate them with chicken and the meal totally worked. I did not use gravy, but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t be fine. I think even kids would like this. Furthermore, I think you could not tell them and they’d never figure it out.