Sprout & Pea

Hands down, my absolute favorite side dish is my mom’s mashed pota­toes. She makes them with sour cream which gives them a nice creamy tang and when it comes to food, I tend to devour any­thing with a lit­tle tang. Over the years, I’ve adapted this recipe into a slightly health­ier ver­sion by sub­sti­tut­ing Greek yogurt and it tastes just as deca­dent. Con­tin­u­ing on the healthy route, tonight I decided to make my adapted recipe with cau­li­flower instead of pota­toes.

Truth be told, if some­one placed this in front of me and told me it was mashed pota­toes, I would prob­a­bly believe them. While the con­sis­tency is a bit thin­ner, it tastes very sim­i­lar. This dish also gets bonus points by sav­ing you time (no need to peel away at tons of pota­toes), and this cru­cif­er­ous veg­etable is packed full of health ben­e­fits that you can read all about here. Here’s how to make this easy side dish…

1 head of cau­li­flower (flo­rets only — no stems)
1 small, 6 oz con­tainer of greek yogurt
2 tbsp but­ter
3 tbsp grated parmi­giano reg­giano
2 cloves of gar­lic chopped
1/​2 small shal­lot chopped
1 chopped scal­lion for gar­nish
Salt, pep­per and sea­son­ings to taste (I like to use gar­lic pep­per and Adobo)

In a medium pot, bring water to boil (I like to add some gar­lic pep­per and Adobo to the water). Add cau­li­flower flo­rets to the boil­ing water and let cook for about 8 min­utes or until soft. Remove and drain. In a food proces­sor, com­bine the cau­li­flower with the greek yogurt, but­ter, gar­lic and shal­lots and blend until a creamy con­sis­tency. Add salt and pep­per or Adobo or sea­son­ings of your choice and blend once more. Trans­fer to a bowl and while hot, mix in the parmi­giano reg­giano and top with scal­lions for garnish.