This Mashed Cauliflower with Butter and Herbs will be your new favorite low-carb side dish! It’s creamy and delicious, and a perfect recipe to enjoy all year round.
The secret to making the BEST mashed cauliflower is adding lots of flavor, including fat. Salted butter, half and half, and a whole pile of fresh herbs make an appearance in this easy recipe.
My other trick? Boiling the cauliflower in chicken stock (or veggie stock) with a generous pinch of salt amps up the flavor of the cauliflower before adding anything else to it! As it cooks, it absorbs all of those delicious flavors, giving this recipe a great base to work with.
It’s absolutely delicious, and I promise you (and your kids!) will fall in love with it.
Does mashed cauliflower taste like mashed potatoes?
A lot of people will substitute mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes if they are on a low-carb or keto diet.
But I think this mashed cauliflower deserves better than to be only second to a potato.
Don’t get me wrong- I love me some mashed potatoes. But I LOVEEEEE this mashed cauliflower, too!
It fulfills much of the same purpose as mashed potatoes, and will soak up any delicious sauces or juices from steak, gravy, etc. But the texture and taste is much different than mashed potatoes.
If you want the texture to be more similar to potatoes, you can puree the cauliflower using a food processor or blender. I always avoid this if I can, because I hate cleaning those appliances. I just used a potato masher.
What should I serve with Mashed Cauliflower?
Mashed Cauliflower can be served with anything you’d normally serve with mashed potatoes.
You can serve it with turkey and gravy, steak and browned butter pan sauce, or anything with a yummy sauce to help soak all of it up. We had it with honey mustard chicken. YUM.
It’s also great as an alternative to mashed potatoes in shepherd’s pie!
Can you freeze mashed cauliflower?
Yes! You can easily freeze mashed cauliflower. It’s probably best to put it in a gallon sized freezer bag and try to get out as much air as possible, but an airtight container will also do fine.
You can freeze it for up to three months.
When you defrost it, keep in mind- some of the liquid may separate out from it and pool up. Just give it a good stir and it should be fine!
Finally, this recipe is so easy to give it your own twist. I’ve seen mashed cauliflower recipes made with garlic, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and plenty of vegan or dairy free versions.
You can easily make this one vegan, paleo, or dairy free by using vegetable stock instead of chicken, a plant-based milk or coconut milk instead of heavy cream, and olive oil instead of butter.
If you like this mashed cauliflower recipe, try these other delicious low carb sides:
- Greek Green Beans (Fasolakia)
- Roasted Cauliflower with Pine Nuts and Raisins
- Mexican Roasted Zucchini
- Five-Minute Sautéed Spinach with Garlic and Lemon
Mashed Cauliflower with Butter and Herbs
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower cut into florets (see notes)
- 2 cups chicken stock/broth or vegetable broth, or, in a pinch, water
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half, or whole milk
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs I used parsley and dill
Instructions
- Add the cauliflower and chicken broth (2 cups) to a large pot, along with a generous pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer on low for 20 minutes, or until cauliflower pieces, including any stems, are very tender when you stick a fork in them.
- Drain the cauliflower and add it back to the pot.
- Use a potato masher to mash the cauliflower to desired consistency. If you want it to be VERY smooth, use a food processor or blender to pulverize it.
- Add the butter (2 tablespoons), heavy cream (1/4 cup), and fresh herbs to the mashed cauliflower. Continue to mash (or blend) until all ingredients are combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve garnished with more herbs and/or butter, if desired.
Notes
- Time Saving Tip: The smaller the florets are cut, and the fewer thick stems there are, the shorter time this will take to cook. To save time, buy pre-cut florets from your grocery store. Here's a great tutorial on how to cut a cauliflower into florets.
- You can use both the florets and the thicker stems. However, the stems will take longer to cook. I suggest making sure you allot more time for the recipe, and also cook the stems for about 15-20 minutes before adding the florets.
- Using different herbs: I recommend using herbs that aren't very strong, such as basil, cilantro, parsley, dill, and/or mint. If you want to use stronger, tougher herbs, such as oregano or rosemary, I have two suggestions. Either cut the amount down to 1 tablespoon, as a little goes a long way, or infuse the herbs by adding them in cheesecloth to the boiling water as the cauliflower cooks and removing the bundle before mashing. The flavor will be there without any tough leaves.
- For a vegan option, use olive oil instead of butter, vegetable broth or water instead of chicken, and plant-based milk alternative instead of half and half.
- The provided nutrition information is my best estimate. It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Erin Schlichting
I love this recipe and have used it many times. Thank you!
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked it!
Edward Huber
This was amazing! Very simple and simple ingredients and came out fantastic.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks! So glad you liked it!
areles
i wasn’t super thrilled with this (actually threw it out), but i assume it was more operator error.
i used water instead of broth and whole milk instead of cream (neither on hand), and used a blend of french savory herbs. otherwise followed the recipe exactly.
i went too heavy on the herbs, so that was my bad, but the cauliflower itself came out WAY too watery to the point of being inedible; it seemed the issue was there was nothing binding it. i even tried adding more butter. not sure if the issue was using milk instead of cream, or if this should actually be whipped instead of mashed, but this definitely wasn’t the creamy consistency i’m used to with mashed cauliflower. it was basically just watery tiny bits of cauliflower (with WAY too much herbs).
wondering if you/others have successfully used milk with this – again, i assume operator error, but it was unfortunate that i had to scramble for frozen veggies after tossing out a head of cauliflower and wasting imported herbs, so hoping to have a better result next time.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Aw man! So sorry this didn’t turn out the way you wanted. I have a few thoughts that may help. First, just to be sure, did you drain the cauliflower before mashing? If you mash it with the water/broth, it will be too watery. Mashing should happen only after it’s drained. If you DID drain it before mashing, it’s possible it was overcooked, and therefore very mushy when it was mashed, which may have caused it to be watery. Try less cooking time next time. And if it IS too watery, you can always add it back to the pot and simmer uncovered, stirring so it doesn’t stick and burn, until it’s more thickened- the liquid will evaporate as it simmers. As for the milk vs. cream, this shouldn’t have mattered very much, but milk IS thinner than cream, so may have contributed a small amount to the watery-ness. Finally, for the herbs, it’s possible that you just needed to use fewer herbs. I’m assuming the French herbs were a bit stronger (such as thyme, rosemary, and tarragon and the like?). 2 tablespoons should do it, if that. They also may be better if you infuse them into the cauliflower, by adding them to the cooking liquid, then removing them before mashing (I did this with my rosemary infused potato and cauliflower mash). I’m going to add a note to the recipe card with that suggestion for using stronger herbs (parsley and dill, which is what I used, are a lot less strong in flavor, and are usually better fresh rather than cooked). Anyway, hope that helps and better luck next time!