Creamy, buttery Mashed Cauliflower with Garlic, Sour Cream and Parmesan is the low carb side dish of your dreams! Keto approved!
Mashed Cauliflower may be low in carbs BUT they taste just as good as regular Mashed Potatoes. The secret lies in flavouring them with just the right ingredients to take them from bland to mouthwatering. If you haven’t tried this before, you will fall in love with Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes!
MASHED CAULIFLOWER
Easier than mashed potatoes with less prep time and no peeling necessary, our mashed cauliflower recipe is light, buttery and smooth. Full-flavoured and creamy in every single mouthful, you won’t miss potatoes! Especially if you’ve removed them from your diet — this is the BEST alternative!
With all of the sides appearing on this blog in time for your Thanksgiving planning, many of our readers have been asking for low carb alternatives. Our Mashed Cauliflower Recipe is not only perfect for the holidays, but for any time of the year. A low carb side dish to please everyone.
Serve it with Beef Bourguignon, Coq Au Vin, Meatloaf, or any other meal you’d normally serve with mashed potatoes!
HOW DO YOU COOK CAULIFLOWER TO TASTE LIKE MASHED POTATOES?
After years of trying every diet under the sun, the one recipe I always fall back on in mashed cauliflower. Not for dieting purposes but more so because I LOVE the flavour of them, making them taste very similar to mashed potatoes.
I believe the secret lies in using the same ingredients you would normally use in your mashed potatoes.
Here, we use:
- Unsalted butter — a preference to give you more control over how salty you want them to taste.
- Garlic — sautéed in butter first to release flavour into your buttery mash.
- Sour cream (or substitute with cream cheese).
- Parmesan cheese — fresh and shredded. You can also add other cheese, like Cheddar, Provolone, or Romano.
HOW TO MAKE CAULIFLOWER MASH
Most stores sell riced cauliflower, or cauliflower pre-cut into florets. If you’re lucky enough to find it prepped for you in your store, use it! Prep and cook time will be mush faster for you, which is especially handy when cooking over the holidays.
Keep in mind that cauliflower cooks mush faster than potatoes. You can either steam them for 15 minutes or boil them for 10. Cauliflower is cooked when you can pierce it easily with a fork.
MAKE IT CREAMY
After boiling, and draining, you’re going to cover them with a lid or foil. I drain ours in a colander in my clean kitchen sink and let them sit there while sautéing the garlic in the same pot. Less pots = quicker clean up.
Allowing the cooked cauliflower stand before mashing straight away lets it retain heat and continue to steam, so any excess moisture will reabsorb back into it. Not doing this may result in a watery mash.
FOOD PROCESSOR, BLENDER OR POTATO MASHER?
For the creamiest mash, use a good food processor or blender. Depending on the size of your machines, you may need to do this in batches of two or three, throwing the cauliflower back into the pot after blending each batch. When you’re finished, give it a good mix through along with your other ingredients — taste test — and season your cauliflower mash with a little extra salt and pepper if needed.
If you prefer a textured mash, use a humble potato masher instead. Less equipment means less washing up also.
Optional Additional Ingredients
Our mashed cauliflower recipe uses simple ingredients. However, you can add your favourite ingredients to customise it to your tastes!
Sliced green onions
Oil — Olive, garlic or chili!
Herbs — Thyme, rosemary and parsley.
Chives
Curry powder
Diced bacon
Love Cauliflower? Try these recipes!
Cauliflower Fried Rice
Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower Hash Brown Egg Cups
Mashed Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 cauliflower cut into florets, about 3 pounds or 1 ½ kg
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 6 cloves garlic divided
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- 1 pinch salt to taste
- 1 pinch pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place cauliflower in a steamer over a large pot of boiling water. Steam for 15 minutes until tender. Alternatively, boil cauliflower in salted water for 10 minutes or until fork tender. Remove and drain. Cover with a lid and set aside.
- In the same pot, heat the butter over medium high heat. Sauté garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute).
- Blend cauliflower and garlic in a food processor on high setting until smooth. You may need to do this in batches of two or three, depending on the size of your processor.
- Transfer blended cauliflower into the pot with the garlic. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, sour cream and season with salt and pepper.
Barb says
Well sometimes mistakes make for wonderful surprises. Made this recipe and we absolutely loved it so thanks for that. Mistake – trying to do too many things at once and the sauce boiled before I realized it. So yes it curdled, I know better. Surprise – the leftovers made the most wonderful broccoli, chicken, mushroom soup with a few additions and more chicken broth!!! I’ll make your recipe just for the soup the next day lol!
Dt says
I have tried other cauliflower mash recipes before and only been mildly impressed. This recipe was a DELICIOUS find! And incredibly easy! I used and immersion blender to mash the cauliflower and garlic directly in the pot. I would highly recommend this recipe for any mashed potato lover. Regardless of a low-carb diet, and this dish is worth trying.
CJ says
An insane amount of butter and garlic, and it’s so worth it. Trying my first recipe from your website and it
s a 10! Will be back for more!
Natron Fiendz says
Yummy. I adjusted the recipee via adding at least 12 sticks of salted butter and a whole can of crisco! As I drank it from the bowl, it got all over my white tee shirt! We all laughed.
Natron Fiends says
Mmmmhmmn!!! I would give this 10 stars if I could. Only thing I changed was that I used about 10 sticks of butter and about a half gallon of vegetable oil. So tasty and healthy!
RoMa says
Delicious! Thank you for this easy yummy recipe.
I will be using this recipe for Thanksgiving!
Great texture and super good flavor.
I didn’t have sour cream, so I substituted with cream cheese… worked for me.
Cant wait to make again.
Kim Warner says
This recipe is a game changer! It’s so yummy! Even my husband loved it even though he’s not doing a low carb diet.
ahp says
Incredibly delicious. Added diced green onions at the end. Better than mashed potatoes. Thank you!
Amanda says
This worked out great for us! My boyfriend is going low-carb to lose weight, and I’m going high fat to gain weight. This usually results in me making two different dinners. We were both craving bangers and mash, and this was an amazing substitute for traditional potatoes. I added heavy cream to bulk mine up, but his was delicious without that addition. Thanks for a great recipe that allowed me to make ONE meal! I’m definitely going to be looking into cooking with cauliflower more often!
Paul says
Mashed cauliflower recipe is delicious. Thankfully I navigated the recipe despite the instructions which were a mess. Does anyone actually proofread these recipes?!