Recipe: Garlic Mock Mashed Potatoes
Some foods just have to be on your Thanksgiving table, right? Like mashed potatoes. They may not be legally required but just try to do without a big bowl of fluffy, buttery potatoes and see what your guests have to say. Those high calorie favorites are probably why the average Thanksgiving dinner weighs in at a whopping 3,000-4,500 calories. But here’s something to be thankful for—you don’t have to give up the taste to cut the calories on mashed potatoes, just replace your normal starchy potato dish with our Garlic Mock Mashed Potatoes. Cauliflower is the secret to its success.
This isn’t the first time we’ve featured magical cauliflower in a cut-the-calories recipe. Have you tried our Low Cal Faux Potato Salad? We think cauliflower works even better in this recipe after it’s boiled to the point of tenderness, blended with cream cheese, Parmesan, garlic, and other flavors, and then dabbed with a pat of butter. Like a cloud of fluffy Thanksgiving goodness.
Feel free to skip to the recipe at the bottom of this page or keep reading for helpful tips in perfecting this easy recipe. First, the ingredients. Most of them are listed above and the rest are pictured below:
Step one: Set out your cream cheese to soften a few minutes you want to begin the rest of the preparation. Since it’s only a single tablespoon, it shouldn’t take long to soften at room temperature. Might as well set out the butter, too, so it will melt more easily into the dish. And while those are softening, wash and mince your chives—which are optional.
Pro Tip: If you forget to soften the cream cheese, you can pop it in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Just watch that it doesn’t become too soft.
Step two: Add your cream cheese, Parmesan, garlic, chicken bouillon, and black pepper to a deep bowl or food processor. Stir to pre-blend but most of the blending will come later.
Step three: Add some water to a large pot and set it on the stovetop to boil. Then clean and trim your cauliflower, discarding the outer leaves and the thick stems. You want to keep the florets, which will cook and mash evenly. Chop your florets into small pieces, toss them in your boiling water, and cook them for 6 to 10 minutes.
Pro Tip: Your timing may vary, depending on the size of your cauliflower pieces. Test the tenderness with a fork at 6 minutes and continue boiling until your fork penetrates a piece easily.
Step four: Promptly drain the cauliflower. Jiggle it few times in the sieve to loosen remaining water, then turn it out onto a paper towel lined plate and pat it dry. Keep changing the paper towels until the cauliflower pieces are as dry as you can realistically get them. A little dampness is fine but wet pieces will fall apart and your mock potatoes won’t be fluffy.
Step five: Add the cauliflower pieces to the cheese/garlic mixture. If you’re using a food processor, pulse just until smooth. If using an immersion blender, be careful to move it around to get the whole bowl smooth and all the flavors blended into the “potatoes”.
The process looks like this:
Pro Tip: Don’t have a food processor or an immersion blender? A potato masher or a fork can be used, but the end product may not be as fluffy. I used the Mueller Multistick 5-in-1 immersion blender, which I’ve owned for years and is handy for quick mixing, especially for smoothies. Clean up is faster and easier than my food processor, too. Find it on Amazon if you’re interested.
Step six: If you worked fast enough then your Garlic Mock Mashed Potatoes should still be warm, but if it’s not then rewarm in the microwave. Then just add a few pats of butter and a sprinkle of minced chives, and serve!
