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.