Once, at a cooking demonstration, I all but inhaled a calzone with my eyes. Seriously, y’all, it was full of the melty goodness we call cheese. Except, it wasn’t.
It looked like a calzone. The chef was calling it calzone. But it was made with weird sprouty things.
No.
Back then I was pretty put off by the idea of adapting old favorites to meet new dietary needs, but since then – both by necessity and the desire to get my kids to eat more veggies – I’ve changed my tune.
Pizza crust made with cauliflower? Totally doable, but my eyes and taste buds need to be in sync. And so it is with that in mind that I humbly offer you my tried-and-true fauxtato recipe.
Although my family has reintroduced potatoes to our diet, we still love this version. In fact, when I made it last week my preschooler finished his portion and then proceeded to scoop every last bit out of the serving bowl for himself.
Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 large heads cauliflower (roughly chopped)
- 14-20 large cloves of garlic (peeled and roughly chopped)
- 8 tbsp butter (melted)
- sea salt (to taste)
- black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Steam garlic and cauliflower for 10 minutes (you may have to do this in two batches depending on the size of your steamer)
- Remove cauliflower from steamer and place in a colander to drain for 15 minutes
- Toss cauliflower/garlic, butter, salt and pepper in a food processor and blend until smooth. Warm up in the oven before serving.
Nutrition
Want More Cauliflower Recipes?
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe – This simplified cauliflower pizza crust doesn’t require any pre-cooking, steaming, squeezing, or double back-handsprings. It takes only a few minutes of hands-on time and holds together beautifully!
- Cauliflower Fried “Rice” – One of my very favorite things this recipe is that it’s so versatile. Don’t have any onion or carrots? No problem, just use whatever veggies you have on hand – zucchini, squash, mushrooms, leeks, etc.
- Golden Roasted Cauliflower – The simple blend of spices in this golden recipe create a rich, savory, slightly garlicky flavor. My family loves it, and I love how easy it is to throw together at the end of a busy day.
- Creamy, Dairy-Free Shrimp Chowder – You don’t need to be dairy-free to enjoy this “creamy without the cream” shrimp chowder, and it’s a great way to get extra veggies into your family’s diet.
Mae Annette Burke
I made these the other night with loads of garlic, coconut oil, almond milk, a tad bit of butter and nutritional yeast and they were SO good!
Monique jackson
Did you steam your garlic or just threw it in food processor with the steamed cauliflower? Not sure how to steam garlic or if j can just skip the steaming of garlic.
Heather
Yes, I steamed the garlic with the cauliflower.
Jenni
Beautiful…I need to make these and top it with my gravy and I’m adding ghee cause I can eat it now. Woo-hoo!
Heather
Yay for ghee!
Christina Nauss Roe
BTW, your quote comes from the movie “American Pie”.
My hubby LOVES cauliflower and I’m not a huge fan, but I can see this on this weekends menu. Thanks for sharing.
Ilka Jones
Mmmmh… I really don’t like cauliflower… as a child, just the smell made me gag!
Mommypotamus
Awww, Mae Annette Burke! Love the lengths you are going to for Norah 🙂
Mommypotamus
Ugh, Christina Nauss Roe – I didn’t know that. I’m kind of a ditz when it comes to pop culture. **sigh** Hope you like it – I’m not a fan of cauliflower either but I love this recipe!
Mommypotamus
Ilka Jones – Hmmm . . . I don’t think this recipe is for you then. No worries, there’s always pie! . . . and stuffing . . . and cranberry sauce
Megh @ Yolks, Kefir, & Gristle
I haven’t seen it either, but from the glimpses I’ve seen of the sequels, which prompted me to ask my husband to turn something else on, you probably don’t want to know…
Heather
I’m thinking you’re right, I don’t wan to know!
Kathleen Johnson
Hey, I have had that calzone, have made that calzone (minus the sprouts) and it was pretty darn tasty!
Heather
Haha! I have to say it was pretty good and I would have enjoyed it if the chef had called it something else, but I was really disappointed because I was expecting cheese. My dad did the same thing to me once – handed me caviar and told me it was grape jelly. I LOVE caviar, but not when I think it’s going to be jelly!
Jenni Allan
These look wonderful!!! I will have to give them a try for Thanksgiving, I was wondering what we were going to do with potato allergies. THANK YOU!!!
Heather
You’re welcome! There are so many ways to get around potatoes. Can you do butternut squash? We fry them up like french fries and use them as crusts for our quiches – there’s a jalapeno cheddar version on the recipe page if you’re interested!
Ilka Jones
Yay for cranberry sauce! I fell in love with cranberries when I first tasted them! 🙂 — I’m from Germany, and we don’t have cranberries there.
Joanna Moore
how funny, i just made these the other night to go along with your liver chili recipe! i just used butter and real brand garlic salt but it was deeelicious! i like your idea of topping with green onions/chives. will have to try it with that and pepper next time. my hubby is a huge fan of garlic mashed potatoes so this will for sure become a common side dish around here. =)
Heather
They’re great with cheese, too! And bacon. Okay, I’m stopping . . . this is making me hungry!
Carla Taylor Tucker
We’ve been having this quite a bit lately!
Jenni
so, we’ve always used a potato masher, but I think the food processor would get them closer to the same consistency as potatoes. we also use ghee instead of butter, any even though the two smell different on their own, when mixed in with other foods I do not think there is a huge difference.
Heather
Yep, I tried these with a masher and it just wasn’t “right” . . . a food processor is a must on this one!
Jessica S
What would be a good butter sub in this recipe? I have tried it with lard, and it’s just a smidge too strong. Maybe some duck/chicken/turkey fat? An immersion blender makes quick work of the puree process too if you have one.
As far as the movie quote, it was one character’s “catchphrase”, she said it constantly, followed by all sorts of stories, all of them innocent except the last one, which involved using her flute in a very unorthodox and rather disturbing way. I hope that is ambiguous enough to not horribly offend anyone, but still satisfy your curiosity 😉
Heather
I think any of those would work. Can you do bacon drippings?
And thank you for explaining that 🙂
Whitney
I’ve had great luck roasting the cauliflower for the cooking step. This does give a flavor (that we like), but it ensures that they are dry enough when I puree them. I’d rather add moisture with butter, milk, etc than have them be really wet already and be limited in how much butter I add. 😉
PS It’s not as ideal as fresh cauliflower, but I have roasted the frozen florets to make this, too. In that case, they are already cooked and the roasting is just to dry them out a little.
greenmama
I made this today as a treat for my husband, who isn’t a big fan of cauliflower, but loves mashed potatoes, they are one of the things he has missed most since we started GAPS. He loved them and cleaned his plate. My children didn’t care for them, even my 2 yr old, who is as big a fan of mashed potatoes as her daddy is. I thought the texture wasn’t quite right, but it was close enough to not bother me, and the flavor was much closer than I expected. I only used 3 cloves of garlic since (although we love garlic in other dishes) we prefer our mashed potatoes plain and creamy. I used almost a whole stick of butter, I think it was slightly more than 1/3 cup. I will definitely make these again, thanks!
Heather
Glad your hubs got some good ole comfort food, Greenmama! Maybe the texture will grow on your little ones 🙂
Becky
I’ve been making faux potatoes with cauliflower mash for a long time. What I have found I miss is not the taste, so much as the texture of potatoes. So, because my dh and I are on a moderated low carb diet (it’s kind of a cross between Atkins, South Beach and Paleo, with a few carbs thrown in to keep us on the wagon) I will put one small brown potato in with the cauliflower. It doesn’t raise the carbs enough to hurt us, but it does give you the texture that you love with a real potato. And, it will help keep you on track with your low carb lifestyle..
Jamie
ummm…u might want to just rephrase to something different… bad disgusting movie :(I am so hungry…I can’t wait to try this recipe!! 🙂
Alison
Ok, so I know this is an old post, but I’m combing your site for my Thanksgiving recipes 🙂 We normally eat mostly gluten-free and dairy free by choice to feel better, and we will also have a guest who absolutely NEEDS to be GF and DF.
Anyway, I wanted to share that one way to simultaneously reduce the cauli flavor while improving/firming up the texture is to chop up a few parsnips and steam them along with the cauli and garlic. The slight sweetness of the parsnips helps to offset the sulfuric taste and smell that normally keeps cauliflower from entering my kitchen, let alone my lips, haha!!
Anyway, we have been doing that for awhile for our version of “faux-tatoes.” It makes a fantastic topping for a paleo shepherd’s pie!
Heather
Thanks for the tip, Alison! Can’t wait to try it! 🙂
M. J.
Alison, if you haven’t yet tried Heather’s Grain-Free Homestyle Stuffing, do it. Absolute perfection!
Donna Urbina
Would an immersion blender work well in this recipe?