I’m going low carb for blood sugar and weight reasons. I absolutely love mashed potatoes. This weekend, my wife is going to make me cauliflower mash for my birthday to go along with what my mother called stroganoff even though no Hungarian living or dead would recognize it as such.
On a scale of 1 - 10, how disappointed am I likely to be with cauliflower as a substitute? Let’s say that 1 is no disappointment at all and 10 is getting underwear for Christmas instead of a motorcycle.
If it’s made well, it can be very good, from my experience. It may not taste exactly like mashed potatoes, but it can still be very tasty. (And, I say this as a serious potato devotee.)
do you like cauliflower ? I think that’s a big part of it. I love potatos and am “meh” on cauliflower, so for me, it would likely be around a 7 or 8 on the Gliney scale.
One of the Japanese fast food places i go to in the mall has been offering rice with cauliflower bits built in. Very much a “meh” for me. Spoils the rice.
I have to admit to one of my stupider moments. I bought a bag of riced cauliflower, cooked it, and was shocked, SHOCKED, to find it tasted like cauliflower, not rice. So your satisfaction, or lack thereof, may hinge on your expectations.
It’s pretty good with butter and garlic. Try to enjoy it on its own sake, not comparing it to mashed potatoes.
I like raw cauliflower with ranch dressing which is just another way of saying that I like ranch dressing.
I’m not sure that would met the OP’s health specifications…
Don’t get your hopes up. Mashed cauliflower doesn’t soak up butter and cream in the same way potatoes do. It doesn’t taste much different from whole cauliflower with a pat of butter on top.
I know, that’s the Cauliflower Paradox.
Pretty much this. Depending on how strict you need to be with you low carb requirements, mashing it up with other other veggies can greatly improve its taste and texture, IMHO. A bit of garlic is always welcome. Mixing three parts cauliflower rice with one part roasted butternut squash (or even canned pumpkin) will improve it tremendously and add bonus nutrients.
I like cauliflower (and not just as a fat-delivery mechanism, though it excels at that)… but it’s not remotely the same thing as potatoes. The only reason it’s thought of as a substitute is… it’s white, I guess?
I like it better than mashed potatoes.
For me a significant factor is the salt. I loves me my salt, and my ancestors had the decency to bestow upon me genes for nice low blood pressure, so I can make almost anything taste good, cauliflower mash included, by salting it a bit more.
If you need to watch your salt intake, there may be more of a disconnect between mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower.
Does it make cauliflower palatable? Yes.
Is it comparable to mashed potatoes? No.
I love cauliflower - roasted, steamed, etc. - but I wouldn’t consider it a potato substitute.
One thing I’ve heard that makes mashed cauliflower very different from mashed potatoes is that cauliflower doesn’t hold in the heat the way potatoes do.
If it’s your birthday, why not just indulge and eat real mashed potatoes? If you only have it once a year, surely your diet can allow it?
I never much liked cauliflower, but have grown to like the riced and mashed forms if given enough salt and butter or similar sauce to mask the taste. Whole cauliflower has a granular texture I don’t much like. Enough salt and sauce makes anything better, of course, but the texture of mashed and riced cauliflower is fine. The flavour is neutral, so easily masked. Affecionados of kale chips, meat substitutes and unglutenous pastry often seem much more enthusiastic than might be warranted.
You might do better by cutting out sugar. Complex carbs in potatoes are not too fattening in moderation. But cauliflower is certainly lower calorie and healthy, so much so that adding salt and garlic butter seems fully justified.
Today is only my third day and it feels a little early to be cheating.
Everyone knows you get a whole week for your birthday. Save birthday dinner until you’ve been on your diet a bit longer and then indulge.
Or make the rest of the meal zero carb and be reasonable with your tater intake. Steak, a fibrous veggie, and taters.
ETA: I just re-read and saw you’re having stroganoff. Definitely shouldn’t do potatoes and noodles in the same meal if you’re watching blood sugar.
The mashed potatoes are in lieu of noodles.