Friday, November 27, 2009

Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower with Caramelized Garlic


(pictured: mashed potatoes and cauliflower with caramelized garlic and topped with Italian finishing salt)

Last night we were up a little later than normal (about 1:30am) and decided to sleep this morning until we work up. At 9 am we finally decided to get up and start our respective days. As usual we had our cranberry and apple oatmeal this morning, green drink and green tea with ginger and pomegranate. We both like to start our day as healthy as possible.

The hubby has left for his office downtown to get some work done and I will be spending the day at home cleaning and getting ready to start putting up the Christmas decorations tonight after dinner. Something tells me there will be a little cooking today too. ;)

Before I get started cleaning I wanted to post another recipe from Thanksgiving. The family thinks mashed potatoes are a requirement on the Thanksgiving table. I don’t think any of us need that much starch. In order to make the potatoes a little healthier I substituted half the potatoes with cauliflower and added caramelized garlic for flavor that didn’t involve a lot of fat. These potatoes were very popular last night. There were even seconds after I told people that the dish was half cauliflower. Here is how I made the potatoes last night.

Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower with Caramelized Garlic
Makes 8 servings of 1 cup each

Ingredients:

4 cups of peeled, potatoes
4 cups chopped cauliflower florets
2 heads caramelized garlic, drained of excess oil
1 pinch kosher salt (or Italian Finishing salt)

Directions:

Boil and drain the potatoes and smash or rice. Boil and drain the cauliflower and smash of rice and add to the potatoes. Add the caramelized garlic (skins removed) and stir to combine it into the potatoes and cauliflower. Season with kosher salt or Italian finishing salt and serve hot.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 211.36
Calories From Fat (5%) - 10.07

Total Fat - 1.15g
Saturated Fat - 0.19g
Cholesterol -0mg
Sodium - 65.79mg
Potassium - 1151.45mg
Total Carbohydrates - 45.99g
Fiber - 6.48g
Sugar - 3.08g
Protein - 6.29g

The numbers above assume that ½ tablespoon of oil remained after I drained garlic. That is probably overstating the number but I would prefer to be conservative with my numbers.

Comments:

In spite of these potatoes containing two heads of garlic they were not as “garlicky” as I expected. Next time I may use three heads of garlic. As they were made they would work with most any sides, but I prefer a decided Italian flavor.

The texture of these was exactly like mashed potatoes. If I hadn’t told the family, they would have had no idea they were half cauliflower. I don’t think I will ever make my mashed potatoes without cauliflower again.

Unrelated notes:

I am off to clean the house. When I take a break from cleaning I will post another recipe or two from last night.

I hope you are all having a great long weekend.

11 comments:

  1. This sounds delicious. I love cabbagey things mixed into mash. Sometimes I do 1/2 and 1/2 rutabaga and potato. I'm trying cauliflower next time. Pure rutabaga mash is really yum too and less starchy.

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  2. Rose,

    Thanks! :) I haven't tried mashed rutabaga yet. Since they were at the farmers market last week I hope I can pick one up on Sunday. Thanks so much for the tip. I can't wait to try it.

    Alicia

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  3. Yum! I love cauliflower and we've gotten lots of it from our CSA this fall. If it's in my box tomorrow, I'll try your recipe.

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  4. Vegbooks,

    Thanks for commenting and nice to meet you!

    I hope you like the recipe. My family really enjoyed it.

    Alicia

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  5. i wanted to make mashed cauliflower yesterday, that is so crazy, but i couldnt find any cauliflower that looked good. my fault though for waiting so long! yesterday i made stir fried brown rice, steamed veggies, sauteed spinach with onion and mushroom and some other stuff, so we had a good day. i read about your thanksgiving, it was funny because you were all done cooking, eating, and cleaning and we hadnt even finished cooking yet! lol

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  6. Michelle (dirtyduck),

    Your dinner sounds very healthy and tasty. Good for you. Did Walter enjoy it? Have you tried mashed cauliflower and millet yet? It is on my list to make, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

    We were finished early due to the time difference and since my parents are in their 80's we eat early to accomodate them. While eating early is something Dan and I don't normally do, it was nice to have the kitchen cleaned by 8:30 so I had time to relax.

    talk to you soon,
    Alicia

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  7. ahh yum!! Maybe I'm just hungry but that looks damn good. great recipe, very creative!

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  8. thanks on the compliments! i havent even tried mashed cauliflower yet, but i know i will like it..especially if i follow a recipe as good as this one looks.maybe i havent done millet correctly...but i dont think i like it that much, ill keep trying though!

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  9. Dani,

    Thanks for letting me know you like the sound of the recipe. I really enjoyed it and the rest of the family had no idea until I told them the potatoes were half cauliflower. It worked perfectly.

    Michelle,

    You are welcome.

    Millet is fabulous, we think. It is my husband's favorite whole grain. He always chooses it when I ask him which one he wants. I make it exactly like rice. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook until water has been absorbed then let stand covered for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and you are done. If you stir the millet or add too much water it gets gummy. Also it seems to help a lot to let it stand the last 10 minutes covered off the heat. It took me a couple times before I got it right too.

    talk to you soon,
    Alicia

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  10. hey thanks for that, mine always seems so dry and....crunchy still, my birds always end up getting their millet back...lol

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  11. Michelle,

    I am going to guess you need more water or less cooking time if your millet is turning out crunchy.

    I also love that the birds get the millet back. Very funny!

    Dan really enjoys that most people give millet to birds and he eats it. I think that is part of the appeal of eating it for him. Silly man.

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

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