These cauliflower mashed potatoes came out FANTASTIC!!! Healthy, easy and simply the best!
Whoever came up with an idea for mock cauliflower mashed potatoes is genius! You could easily swap them for mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes and eat them occasionally but I would make this recipe for a lighter alternative.
MY LATEST RECIPESEverything You Need to Know About This Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Recipe
- On a scale of 1 to 10, cauliflower taste = 1.
- Just like with cauliflower biscuits and cauliflower breadsticks, mashed cauliflower potatoes do not taste like mashed potatoes because…cauliflower is not potatoes, that is correct.
- Recipe consists of 5 simple ingredients – cauliflower, garlic, butter, salt and pepper.
- Cook and puree the garlic with cauliflower. It adds amazing taste without overpowering “potatoes” like raw one would.
- Ba patient when pureeing. It takes about good 5 minutes to turn cauliflower into a creamy and fluffy mash. Results are pretty darn amazing!
How to Make Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Vegan
I love butter in mashed potatoes, however extra virgin olive oil is very good too. It has strong full-bodied taste unlike milder tasting avocado oil, for example. I believe you don’t need to add Parmesan cheese, buttermilk or sour cream to regular potatoes, especially to cauliflower, to make it tasty. Good quality olive oil and that pureed cooked garlic will add so much flavour!
How to Make Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
- Separate cauliflower into florets and cut in smaller chunks.
- In a medium pot, combine cauliflower, garlic and enough cold water to cover the vegetables.
- Place a lid on top and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender. Drain.
- Add butter or extra virgin olive oil, salt and ground black pepper to taste.
- Using an immersion blender or in a food processor, process until very smooth or desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.
- Serve hot just like you would serve mashed potatoes.
What to Serve with Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
- Baked chicken breast
- Baked chicken with peppers and mushrooms
- Honey garlic salmon
- Thai salmon
- Thai turkey meatballs
How to Make Slow Cooker Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Slow cooker cauliflower mashed potatoes is the same idea as with a stovetop method, just cooked in a crock pot. During holidays and big gatherings, I like to make slow cooker cauliflower mashed potatoes to offer a lighter alternative without making my schedule and stove over crowded.
And look, you can take cauliflower mashed potatoes even further just in 20 minutes, and make Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie.
How to Make Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie
PrintCauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Recipe with unbelievable taste and texture. Plus so easy to make! Save your calories for turkey.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 2.5 – 3 lbs (medium) cauliflower head
- 2 large garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp butter (I used salted) or olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Separate cauliflower into florets and cut in smaller chunks.
- In a medium pot, combine cauliflower, garlic and enough cold water to cover the vegetables. Place a lid on top and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 10 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender. Drain.
- Add butter or olive oil, salt and ground black pepper to taste. Using an immersion blender (a food processor), process until very smooth or desired consistency. Adjust salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.
- Serve hot just like you would serve mashed potatoes.
Store: Refrigerate in a glass airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
Olena, love your recipes! I find when cooking…even steaming cauliflower, I still need to remove some of the water/ liquid after cooking. Otherwise, the whipped cauliflower, though good, is slightly thin texture. To me, by removing the extra liquid, makes the end result a much better consistency…more resembling mashed potatoes. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
★★★★
That is true. I’m just too lazy to do an extra step but I can see how it helps.:) I will add it to the recipe’s notes actually. Glad you are enjoying my recipes.:)
Thank you for this, my daughter has developed a potato allergy and it’s been hard with such a rare allergy! I’m so glad I can make her classic mashed potatoes with very little difference in taste but huge benefit in nutrients!
★★★★★
That’s a rare allergy for sure. Glad you made it work.
Made it 3 times and my Italian family loved it!
★★★★★
Just made this tonight all I can say is Fantastic
I tried these tonight, very good
Can you use frozen cauliflower rice for this? How much?
Yes. One bag of frozen cauliflower rice replaces medium head of cauliflower.
Does the garlic get pureed too or do you toss those after cooking?
It gets pureed, don’t toss.
I don’t have a food prossesor anymore. Can I just whip them up with a hand held mixer?
Hm, I have never tried.
I toast bread crumbs in butter (or olive oil), with a little salt and perhaps garllic, if you like.Take the cauliflower apart into little pieces and undercook them just a minute. Put the verywell drained cauliflower-ets head first into the bread crumbs, cover for a minute to make it really hot, stir well so everyone gets their share of bread crumbs and serve. Yum. From Hungary.
That sounds so good! We made similar cauliflower in Ukraine, dipped in eggs ash and then cauliflower. Of course I love garlic haha.
My electric pressure cooker works wonders here. Locks in all the nutrients and doesn’t stink up the house which was always my bigger problem with cauliflower before.
I absolutely HATE cauliflower but I MUST say this recipe is beyond AMAZING!! I followed the recipe and used butter (out of Kerry Gold). I even sent this to my mom who hates veggies but I know will like this. Next I will try roasting with the garlic and red onions too. That sounds yummy. Thank you SOOOO MUCH Olena for sharing :).
You are welcome. Yes, sometimes the way cauliflower is prepared the smell of it is bleck. Especially in desserts. But most of the times it is good.
Delicious! Healthy alternative when craving mashed potatoes. I’m pairing the cauliflower mash with crock pot chicken pot pie!
Sounds good. Now I am craving a crock pot chicken pot pie.
Not so much. It’s still cauliflower. It was enough of a treatment that I could eat it, but it did not fool the kids.
Back to the drawing board for a way to cook this veggie AND make it taste good.
Good luck!:)
I just made this recipe and it was so easy I used regular that I bought at Aldi. Itwas really good.
This recipe sounds so easy and yummy! I actually have my cauliflower cooking right now so I can add this to my meal prep for the week.. Can’t wait to try it
Awesome. I just cooked buffalo cauliflower soup yesterday which I am about to post and thought cooked chunky cauliflower did remind me of something. These mashed potatoes.:) Enjoy!
Tried this with oilve oil instead of butter and I really loved it. I’m going to try and sneak it into one of my kid’s dishes, I’m sure she’ll like it!
Hi Christina. Any type of fat will work. Even melted pork fat. Kidding but that is what we ate in Ukraine with fried potatoes.
Um, my kids didn’t like mashed cauliflower. Oldest one said it is not bad but no thank you haha. Try and see. Never know! My kids still shock me sometimes with food choices. In a good way.
We are dairy free so liked this method. I used 1tbs coconut oil and 1 tsp salt in vitamix. Did steam garlic with the cauliflower. May try oven roasted next time
Steam the cauliflower in basket & use half butter &half cream cheese. Works for me!!!
Thanks for the other suggestions !!!
I will try it… It looks YUMMY.
Hi Olena, I buy my Kerry Gold Butter from Costco and stock up, as it’s more expensive in regular grocery stores… thanks for the recipe, I’m going to give it a go tonight!
Hi Sylvia. Costco in Canada doesn’t carry it.:( However, since I don’t use butter a lot it lasts forever. Let me know how you like these.:)
For grassfed butter, look for Kerry Gold butter from Ireland. It is amazingly delicious.
I agree. There is also Kiwi brand. I also bought my local farm’s grass fed butter and it went bad really fast like real butter from childhood in Ukraine. It became dark yellow outside and tasted bitter. Ew but at least I knew that I had real butter. I didn’t expect that but now I know.
I made it today! Very tasty! Thank you for recipe! 🙂
Boiling the cauliflower as we speak. But why add the garlic in the water when it will be drained?
Cooked garlic adds nice flavour. It is less mild than raw one and better in this dish.
I used organic free range chicken broth instead of the water and it was delicious! The broth gives the cauliflower so much flavor! Thanks for the recipe!
So far my attempts at mashed cauliflower haven’t turned out too well, but your recipe looks terrific, and I like Suzanne’s suggestion of roasting rather than boiling to reduce the water content (and nutrient loss). I’ll give both methods a try, using your recipe. Thanks!
I promise this is delicious! I am very honest about my recipes and do not like BS.
I discovered that mashed cauliflower comes out much better if you roast it in the oven with a little olive oil, rather than steaming or boiling – less water content that way. I like to roast mine with garlic and red onion for extra flavor, before puréeing in the food processor.
I should try that! Thanks for sharing!
Great idea! Thanks.