If you’re looking to convert your family from mashed potatoes to something lighter, let this be your recipe to start with. Cheesy cauliflower mash is a generic term for making cauliflower creamy with cheese. It tastes really delicious and feels way lighter potato. It’s a cruciferous vegetable that takes to soft cheeses well and with a good enough food processor, the texture can be indistinguishable against mashed potatoes. Mix it up with some milk, parmesan cheese, and your soft cheese of choice, like cream cheese, goat cheese, or ricotta to give it that signature creamy texture.

It’s a simple process that I promise takes no time at all to understand. You’re taking the cauliflower and boiling it until it’s mushy, like potato, then mashing it up in a food processor.

A quick pause for a food lesson, potatoes contain a high amount of starch. They actually crush potatoes down to extract the starchy liquid, then dry it to make potato starch. You cannot blend potatoes in a food processor because it will make the texture gummy, no good. That’s why we use potato ricers or hand blenders. A gentle way of making the texture smooth. The reason we can puree cauliflower is because of the lack of starch allowing us to yield very fine texture without any risk of gumminess.

Finish these potatoes with some of your favorite cheese or flavors, but my standard is parmesan because of that umami saltiness it provides as well as goat cheese to just add that tang. Cauliflower does have that smelly smell when it’s cooked, so added some tangy like goat cheese and sour cream feels like putting a square peg into a square hole. It won’t ever be the EXACT same taste as mashed potatoes.

However you get creative with this recipe, be sure to NOT forget the butter. The butter makes you want to stick your face directly into this bowl. My advice to the families trying this for the first time is to make this with everyone’s favorite roasted meat. Whether that dish is pot roast, chicken piccata, or braised dishes like oxtail or beoef bourginon.