Cauliflower rice and cauliflower mash
Units
Servings
Ingredients
Riced
- 600 g riced cauliflower, frozen rounded
- 15 ml olive oil or butter rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
Mashed
- 1 cauliflower, one head rounded
- 40 g butter rounded
- 60 ml cream rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
Method
Method
- Riced. If you are starting from a fresh head, cut it into florets and pulse them in a food processor until they look like coarse rice. Stop before it turns to paste. Frozen riced cauliflower goes straight into the pan.
- Heat the oil in a pan and add the cauliflower. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring, until it is hot through and the edges have taken a little colour. In the microwave it is 3 to 4 minutes.
- Season with salt and serve straight away.
- Mashed. Cut the head into florets and boil them 12 to 15 minutes, until a knife goes through with no resistance at all. Undercooked cauliflower will not blend smooth.
- Drain thoroughly. Return the florets to the empty hot pot and leave them for a minute or two so the steam comes off them.
- Blend or mash with the butter and salt. Add the cream last, a splash at a time, and stop when it is as loose as you want it.
Notes
- Watery mash is the failure mode, and it has three causes: cauliflower is mostly water to begin with, boiling puts more water into it, and a colander does not get that water out. So drain hard, then let the drained florets sit in the hot pot for a minute to steam themselves dry. You will see it happen.
- Add the cream at the end, not with the butter. Cauliflower varies a lot in how much water it holds, and if you pour the cream in blind you have no way back. Butter first, taste, then cream.
- Steaming instead of boiling works and gives you a drier start. It takes a few minutes longer.
- A blender gives you something close to a purée, a masher leaves it rustic. Under Gulasch, rustic is better, because the sauce needs something to sit in.
- This is the workhorse of the keto week. It shows up under Wednesday’s chicken curry as rice, under Saturday’s Gulasch as mash, and again under Sunday’s steak. Buy two heads and a bag of frozen riced, and stop thinking about it.
- The mash reheats fine with a splash of cream or a knob of butter to loosen it. The rice reheats badly and takes 4 minutes to make, so just make it again.