Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Cauliflower mashed potatoes are creamy and delicious! This healthy side dish recipe is a satisfying alternative to mashed potatoes.
Posted by Kathryne Taylor on November 25, 2024
While I’m a forever fan of mashed potatoes, these cauliflower mashed potatoes are a surprisingly great alternative! Use this recipe to make mashed cauliflower or add a potato to the mix for cauliflower mashed potatoes.
When you add a russet potato to the mix, the starch helps the mash become more creamy, smooth, and, as expected, more mashed potato-like. While optional, I prefer the results with the potato. Either way, it’s a simple and nutritious side dish.
Compared to mashed potatoes, cauliflower mashed potatoes offer a lower carb, everyday option that satisfies the craving for mashed “potatoes.” You can even make it with frozen cauliflower—allow a few minutes more time in the steamer.
This recipe is a warm, creamy, and hearty side dish perfect for cold days. I hope you love it.
How to Make Mashed Cauliflower
You’ll find the recipe below, but here are some tips before you get started.
- To make this recipe, you’ll need a large pot, a steamer basket, and a food processor (or mash by hand with a large fork for a chunky consistency).
- Cauliflower varies considerably in size. You’ll need one large or two small heads of cauliflower to make this recipe. If you’re using pre-cut or frozen cauliflower florets, you’ll need two pounds (32 ounces).
- If you’re including the potato, peel it first so it can disappear into the mash. We’ll steam it with the cauliflower.
- Add cream cheese and butter for creaminess—the cream cheese thickens the mixture and offers some tang, which I love!
- For savory flavor, add garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and several twists of black pepper. Process the mixture until it’s smooth and creamy.
- To make this white side dish look more enticing, transfer it to a beautiful bowl and garnish it with butter, chopped chives (optional), and a light sprinkle of black pepper.
Watch How to Make Mashed Cauliflower
What to Serve with Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Cauliflower mashed potatoes perfectly complement your Thanksgiving meal and other traditional suppers. I associate mashed potatoes with the holidays, but since this recipe is light and easy to make, it’s also well-suited to weeknight dinners.
Here are main dishes that would go well with mashed cauliflower:
- Better Broccoli Casserole
- Roasted Carrots with Farro, Chickpeas & Herbed Crème Fraîche
- Spinach Lasagna
- Vegetarian Stuffed Acorn Squash
And more side dishes to enjoy with your cauliflower:
- Best Ever Green Beans or Perfect Roasted Green Beans
- Honey Mustard Brussels Sprout Slaw
- Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole
- Perfect Roasted Carrots (try the honey butter variation)
- Quick Swiss Chard
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Please let me know how your mashed cauliflower turns out in the comments! I love to hear from you. Find more cauliflower recipes here.
Mashed Cauliflower
Cauliflower mashed potatoes are creamy and delicious! This healthy side dish recipe is a satisfying alternative to mashed potatoes. Recipe yields 4 cups, enough for 8 ½-cup servings.
Ingredients
- 1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, core removed and cut into florets 1 to 2 inches in size (2 pounds florets)
- 1 small-to-medium russet potato (about 7 ounces), peeled and diced into ½-inch cubes (optional)
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons butter, plus more for serving
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¾ teaspoon fine salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Optional garnishes: Chopped fresh chives, pat of butter and flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Steam the cauliflower and optional potato: Fill a large pot with 1 inch of water. Cover the pot and bring it to an active boil over medium heat. Add the cauliflower and potato (if using), cover, and steam them over medium heat for 11 to 13 minutes, until they are so tender that they fall apart when poked with a fork.
- Carefully remove the steamer basket from the water and let the veggies cool for 5 minutes or until cool enough to handle.
- Place the warm potato and cauliflower in the bowl of a food processor with the cream cheese, butter, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and several twists of black pepper. Process until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. (Or mash them in a bowl with a large fork for a chunky consistency.)
- Taste and blend in another pinch of salt for more overall flavor, or more pepper for contrast. Serve warm with a few pats of melted butter on top, plus a sprinkle of fresh chives and flaky salt, if desired. Leftover mashed cauliflower keep in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Recipe created with reference to Lucille’s Mashed Potatoes, Feel Good Foodie and Well Plated.
Make it dairy free/vegan: While I haven’t tried, you could substitute vegan sour cream for the cream cheese and vegan butter, such as Miyoko’s Creamery.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Every Thanksgiving I make a similar dish, but instead of potatoes, I combine parnsips with the cauliflower. It adds some wonderful nutty notes, and gives the mash a great density and creaminess. I definitely recommend it! As a vegetarian, I often bring it as a side, and my non-vegetarian family members even love it and request it!
Erin, that sounds great! Thanks for sharing. I honestly don’t any experience with cooking parsnips, so it’s time to change that!
Thank you, Kate, for many wonderful recipes over the years. There hasn’t ever been one I’ve tried that was not excellent. My all-time favorite is the oven-baked butternut squash risotto, which I’d eat every day for a week if I were concerned only with what tasted great. I’m grateful to have a place where I can go – when I don’t have time to pore over dozens of recipes – and just pick something that uses what I have on hand and know it will be delicious. I sometimes wonder how much healthier everyone would be if everyone cooked exclusively from your recipes. A lot, I’m guessing.
Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.
Sharon
Sharon, your note absolutely made my day. Thank you for taking the time to write it! Happy Thanksgiving!!
You spoke for so many of us, Sharon! Every recipe is a winner!
I can’t wait to try this recipe.
All of yours never, ever disappoint.♥️
Thank you so much, Denise. Happy Thanksgiving!
Great!
Thanks, Karen!
Made this for my keto diet husband and heeded your advice about not using stems for creamy texture. With a pat of butter melted on top and swirled it was so pretty on the table and his favorite side dish of all time. Thank you! It looked and tasted decadent and was so easy to make!
I’m so glad to hear it! Thank you for your feedback Victoria.
Have you ever tried putting a scoop of horseradish in your mashed potatoes? I don’t remember where I got the idea but now I always slip some in. You can’t actually taste the horseradish but it adds a complexity that is great.
No, I’ve never tried that! I’ll try to remember for next time.
Excellent, especially adding just a couple of items you mentioned. So good I’m adding cauliflower to list of garden veggies.
Awesome! I’m so happy to hear that this one was a winner for you, Herman.
I’ve used your recipes for years and recommended your website to dozens of people. But in the last year, the pop up ads have made it frustratingly difficult to follow a recipe bc the pages leap around. So from here on, I’ll use this website only occasionally, if at all.
Hi Heather, I’m so sorry to hear that my ads have been causing trouble for you—they pay for website expenses and allow me to do this for a living, but I never want them to be bothersome. I wonder if clearing your browser’s cache might help, because what you’re describing certainly should not be happening. If you’re having this experience on other websites as well, you might try an ad blocker extension.
You’re now my first stop for anything I want to cook, Kate! Quick, easy, always yummy recipes. I searched for mashed cauliflower and I’m so excited it’s a new recipe. Will try tmrw.
Q: I have a blendtec that has a ‘soup’ option (heats while blending). Have you tried, or do you think it might work, to throw raw cauli in there like that? Add the other items toward end? I don’t have a steamer basket is where this Q comes from… Thx
Hi Dani! I have a soup function on my Vitamix and it is handy. I’m afraid it won’t sufficiently soften the cauliflower in this recipe, though you certainly could try. You would probably have better luck just following the directions without the steamer basket—the cauli on the bottom of the pot might get more done but that’s ok since you’re blending it later. That’s my best guess!
Outstanding! Best mash cauliflower recipe ever cream cheese made huge difference and added body more like mashed potatoes. I did not use the optional potato only had 1/2 head a cauliflower but use shelf stable packaged cauliflower rice that I microwaved and mixed in.. added chives to mixture in food processor.
Hello, so glad you were able to make it work with what you had on hand!