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Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes sneak riced cauliflower in with the potatoes and are the best way to make your favorite mashed potato recipe a bit healthier!
This recipe is basically a quick combination of my Two Ingredient Cauliflower Mash and Mashed Potatoes. This easy side dish goes fantastic with any kind of main dish, but I especially love them with Lemon Pepper Chicken.
This recipe only happened because I had some riced cauliflower in my freezer that needed to be cooked. Don’t all great recipes start with the great freezer purge?
Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of cauliflower, but any time I can sneak it into a recipe, I will.
Even though cauliflower is white and we generally associate vibrant color with health benefits, cauliflower is a nutritional power house.
How to make this recipe:
You can make this recipe using your favorite mashed potato recipe as long as you replace some of the potatoes with diced cauliflower.
- I started by cooking the peeled and chopped potatoes until tender. You can do this on the stove in boiling water or you can use your Instant Pot.
- Before the potatoes are done cooking, you’ll add your fresh diced cauliflower or your thawed frozen cauliflower rice. Cook until soft.
- I prefer to mix in equal parts of cream cheese and butter and, of course, enough salt and pepper to make them taste really good.
How to make mashed potatoes extra creamy:
Since I only used cream cheese and butter in this recipe, these potatoes are rather thick. They are fantastic if you want to make a well to hold some gravy. If you want to make them creamier, here are a few ideas.
- Chicken broth can be mixed in. It’s best if you add hot chicken broth rather than cold so that you don’t have to heat the entire mixture.
- Buttermilk is always a fantastic addition to mashed potatoes. It is rather tart, though, so additional salt might be needed.
- Milk will also make mashed potatoes creamier. There’s already a ton of dairy in my recipe, so a little more won’t hurt!
Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds golden potatoes
- 3 cups cauliflower rice (equivalent to 1 head cauliflower where florets are diced)
- 4 tablespoons cream cheese
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt more if needed
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Peel and chop the potatoes. Add to a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Continue cooking until fork tender, about 15 minutes.
- Just before the potatoes are fully done, add the cauliflower rice, cover, and continue cooking until both vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain.
- Add the cream cheese, butter, salt and pepper to the drained potatoes and cauliflower. Either mash by hand or process in stand mixer to mash up all of the lumps. Season with additional salt, if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Love to hide cauliflower in recipes?
Here are some of my favorite things to make where cauliflower is used.
I think some credit where credit is due is in order: this recipe is a variation on Irish colcannon.
Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage or kale. The word “colcannon” comes from the Gaelic term “cal ceannann”, which translates to “white-headed cabbage”. The similarity, I suppose, is that cauliflower and cabbage are both of the same plant family Brassicaceae, or the mustard family.
Thanks for recipe. I’ve been making Cauliflower rice (use a grater and quickly sautee it with olive oil and some curry power and salt) which tastes pretty good so looking for other ideas to use it. Cauliflower is so filing.