The easiest way to make cauliflower mashed potatoes.
I love cauliflower mashed potatoes, or faux-tatoes as some people call them. The one thing I do not love about cauliflower is how the little florets have an impeccable ability to get all over my kitchen. This recipe solves this problem easily, and all you need is a strainer and an immersion blender to keep your cleanup to an absolute minimum. The cauliflower cooks in water in your slow cooker, you then simply drain the water and puree it with an immersion blender. Fold in optional ingredients such as coconut milk, butter, or ghee, and you’re done. Sure you could simply boil or steam your cauliflower like normal people with time on their hands do, this recipe just gives you a way to get it done with less attention required. I challenge you to introduce these cauliflower mashed potatoes to someone in your life, chances are they will have no idea they are not eating white potatoes.
Tools Needed:
Ingredients:
- 1 large head of cauliflower.
- 6 cloves of garlic.
- 1 small package of fresh dill, or about 1/3 cup chopped.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Splash or coconut milk or a tbsp or two of butter or ghee.
How you make it:
- Place your head of cauliflower in your crock pot. Remove the leaves and base stem. Use a paring knife to cut the head into florets. This method avoids having to clean up (or waste) any florets.
- Add your garlic and half of your dill. The rest of your dill will go into the mash fresh.
- Add enough water to your slow cooker to cover your cauliflower mostly (some will float). In a 4-quart crock pot, I used 6 cups of water.
- Cook on low for up 6 to 8 hours or on high for 4 to 5.
- Carefully drain your crock into your colander. Either wait for the crock to cool or use heavy duty oven mitts. Please be careful with a hot crock and hot water.
- Remove the “cooked”dill from your mixture and transfer your cauliflower and garlic to a bowl.
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper, remaining freshly minced dill sprigs (no stems), and your coconut milk or butter if you choose to do so.
- Puree with your immersion blender, and you are done! If you are using a food processor, skip using a bowl and simply add everything into your food processor.
- Garnish with more fresh dill sprigs and see how many people you can fool into thinking these are actually potatoes, and not cauliflower mashed potatoes.
This looks delish! I am definitely going to try this recipe. I recently re-discovered my crock pot and forgot how much I love it. Thanks!
We made another version the other night and it was very runny. I noticed you do not have any steps in the instructions to squeeze out excess water. Is this step necessary? How can I avoid it from being too runny? Help!
Perhaps make sure you do not over puree it? I used an immersion blender instead of a food processor. What you see in the pictures is what I came away with, nothing runny about it whatsoever.
I always drain the cauliflower in the colander for quite a while, until it cools completely and most of the moisture evaporates. And, yes, you can press some of the moisture out while the caul. is still in the colander. What works also is to steam the cauliflower on the stovetop or in the microwave; then drain, etc. I don’t boil it with water… too much liquid dilutes the taste. My husband loves the new alternative to mashed potatoes.
Love the idea of cooking in the crockpot. Do you need to cut up the cauliflower, or can I just cut the head in half? I usually steam mine just cut in half before putting in blender (saves the work of cutting up). Also, have you ever doubled (or tripled) recipe? I make mashed cauliflower for Thanksgiving, so I need a lot. Thanks!
Robin, depends on the size of your crock pot. Goal is to make sure the cauliflower is almost fully submerged in water. If you can accomplish this in yours, then cutting in half will work as well. It might just take some more time with an immersion blender afterwards. Hope this helped.
About how many would this serve? I want to make it for Thanksgiving for our family of 5 (one of which is a teenage boy LoL) and trying to decide if I should double it. Thanks for your awesome recipes! My crock pots are going to get a serious workout this week!
A large head would cover 5 servings fine. If you want to make sure and have leftovers, use a head and a half!
Could you put mashed cauliflower back in crock pot to keep warm while carving turkey and making gravy? Maybe an hour?
Sure, just use the warming setting.
I followed this recipe to a T – did not work at all. Ended up with literally water + grinded cauliflower. Absolutely disgusting 🙁
I’m sorry to hear that, you drained the cauliflower from the water after cooking it and then pureed it?
I wish there was a “print” option. I love keeping a folder of my favorites 🙂