Best mashed cauliflower recipe you can serve as the perfect garlic butter vegetable side dish. Oven roasted cauliflower will be your new favorite dish.
This is the best mashed cauliflower that’s a low carb alternative to buttery mashed potatoes! Following a keto friendly diet, this is a great way to taste the comfort food you’ve been missing. It’s one of our favorite easy side dishes for sure.
Table of Contents
- Buttery Mashed Cauliflower
- What does cauliflower taste like
- Is cauliflower keto?
- What do you need to make the best mashed cauliflower?
- Garlic Mashed Cauliflower
- How to best season mashed cauliflower
- Mashed Cauliflower Keto
- Can I freeze cauliflower puree?
- Steamed cauliflower recipes
- Best Mashed Cauliflower Recipe
Buttery Mashed Cauliflower
Why would you make mashed cauliflower vs. mashed potatoes? There are several reasons and everyone would have a different answer for sure. If you love garlic mashed potatoes but need to cut down on carbs, this is a great second choice.
- This is lower in calories and carbs
- It’s lighter than the alternative
- If you have non vegetable loving children, this dish is a great one to “fool them” into eating veggies, and then potentially loving them
- You can make it REALLY quickly by following our Instant Pot cauliflower mash directions.
What does cauliflower taste like
If you’ve never had it before? It’s quite a subtle flavor really, not like broccoli.
While it is a mild tasting very versatile vegetable, it doesn’t have the same neutral flavor you get with white rice. Instead riced cauliflower or mashed cauliflower has a bit of a nutty flavor. Of course it will be altered depending on what you add to the top once it’s tender.
Is cauliflower keto?
- Cauliflower is actually a vegetable of choice if you’re on the keto diet. This vegetable plant is low in carbs and can replace slow cooker mashed potatoes, rice and pasta easily!!
What do you need to make the best mashed cauliflower?
As far as appliances you can get away with just a potato masher really. Once you boil cauliflower it becomes really soft so a food processor isn’t really necessary but you can surely use it.
Garlic Mashed Cauliflower
An immersion blender is another smaller hand held version. Beyond that here are the ingredients:
- Head of cauliflower
- buy a second and make air fryer cauliflower steaks too
- Whole head of garlic – fresh is best but could use already minced in a jar
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Basil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Boiling water for cooking the cauliflower
If you really want to amp it up and aren’t concerned with the fat and calories you could add:
- Room temperature cream cheese can be added
- Sour cream is another creamy option
- Parmesan cheese is great to add to the top once it’s done and before serving it.
How to best season mashed cauliflower
Garlic salt and/or powder, seasoned salt like Lawry’s is good, if I am making my Crockpot shepherd’s pie I usually leave it pretty plain to let the rest of the dish shine.
Basic steps to follow if you’re making Instant Pot cauliflower mash are a bit different than below. This is how you make cauliflower in a pressure cooker.
Mashed Cauliflower Keto
- Pour 1.5 c water into your pot with a vegetable steamer inside.
- Cut head into smaller cauliflower florets and add into steamer basket
- Close lid and steam valve and set to high pressure for 2 minutes for a very soft outcome or 1 minute if you want chunkier mashed or if you’re making cauliflower rice.
- Do a quick release, remove from heat and place on paper towels to remove excess water before mashing.
- Follow rest of instructions below.
If you want to make this on the stovetop directions for that method are below in the recipe card. If this is for the holiday season you could combine these two to make green bean mashed potato casserole with cauliflower on the bottom instead.
Can I freeze cauliflower puree?
You can!! Just cool your cauliflower puree and refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also freeze leftovers for up to three months.
To reheat mashed cauliflower: Thaw your serving overnight in your refrigerator. Then heat in 30 second increments in the microwave stirring in between times. Make sure to use a microwave safe dish. Better yet make them into air fryer mashed cauliflower balls using this method.
- Note: some pediatricians do not recommend making your own carrot, beet, or spinach puree because these fresh veggies can be higher in nitrates.
Steamed cauliflower recipes
- Cheesy Instant Pot cauliflower is great with fresh and air fryer frozen cauliflower is great if not.
- We’ve made a whole pressure cooker cauliflower with garlic and that turned out great.
- Buffalo baked cauliflower recipe
Printable recipe and nutritional information with carb count and saturated fat below. Let us know what you think once you serve this to your family. Did you add anything different that made it extra amazing? Tell us so we can try it too!
Best Mashed Cauliflower
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 head garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 basil leaf, minced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Trim off about ¼ inch off the top of your garlic. Pour olive oil on top and wrap with aluminum foil. Set on a small pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Chop cauliflower into florets and boil on medium for 30 minutes. Drain in a colander.
- Using a food processor, blend half the cauliflower and garlic on high. Once ingredients have reached a creamy consistency, transfer into a bowl and do the same for the next half. (I suggest doing this in case your food processor is not large enough to fit all of the ingredients).
- Add salt and pepper to taste, followed by melted butter. Serve in individual bowls and top with fresh basil.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
