Mashed potatoes seem like such a pedestrian dish -- until you can't have any.
Fortunately, mashed cauliflower goes a long way to fill the gap. But as great as its eye-appeal, mashed cauliflower just doesn't feel like mashed potatoes. It's watery, especially if you add cream (but it really has to have something for flavor), and doesn't have the starchy texture we expect. It also takes a lot of cooking time to soften it enough to mash like potatoes, far more than you would use to prepare cauliflower as a vegetable.
However, use not/Cereal and you solve these problems. Just cook your cauliflower (frozen works just fine but, if you use fresh, include the center stem parts you would probably just toss) to the point of reasonable tenderness, puree in a blender with enough liquid to make the job easy, and then add not/Cereal to bind the water and give it a starchy texture.
Here's the recipe:
Cook the cauliflower:
I just microwave the cauliflower florets (fresh or frozen), with just the water that clings to it from washing or freezing, in a
single layer, tightly covered with plastic wrap -- practically no odor, and
very easy. One head, broken into florets, fills about two Pyrex 9-inch pie
pans in a single layer. Each pie pan requires about four-eight times whatever
it takes to heat a cup of coffee (my favorite unit for time of microwaving,
since it accounts for the differences in power of different microwave ovens).
Just touch it to see if it's soft enough. If you don't use it right away,
leave it covered (it will look as if it were shrink wrapped), cool, and
refrigerate until needed.
You can of course boil or steam it.
Puree the cauliflower:
I use a blender. That usually requires additional liquid to make it work so
add cream, broth or whatever your recipe uses, adding enough to allow the
blender to do its job.
Thicken and reheat the cauliflower:
Remove it to a microwavable serving dish, add about a tablespoon of ThickenThin
not/Cereal (to taste) per 1-2 cups puree, the amount depends on
the amount of liquid added. If uncertain use less and heat to activate -- if
it's too thin you can always add more. Season, heat, and serve. I use a
microwave but no reason you couldn't bake it in a regular oven.
Since each family seems to have its own recipe for mashed potatoes, I'm not going to give recipes for the seasonings, especially since at this point you can use suggestions from any standard cookbook. (For me, it always includes garlic and onion.
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