Garlic and Herb Mashed Cauliflower and Two Giveaway Winners!

On Friday night, I had plans to make roasted cauliflower with my Blogger Inspired Turkey en Croute.  But Bret asked if we could make mashed cauliflower, which is one of his favorite ways to prepare and eat cauliflower.  We started making this dish a few years ago as a lighter alternative to mashed potatoes and make it from time to time when we are trying to eat less starches.

I had already thawed a bag of cauliflower in the fridge during the day, so I simply cooked it in the microwave with a little bit of water until it was steaming hot.  Yes, I know that I could have used fresh cauliflower but I have found that frozen cauliflower makes this dish so much easier and in this instance, convenience wins in my kitchen when it doesn't compromise flavor.

Bret got to work on the cauliflower and mashed it down with an immersion hand blender.  While he mashed, I added a few tablespoons of skim milk, a pat of butter and fresh cracked salt and pepper.  But the secret ingredient was the Laughing Cow's Light Garlic and Herb wedges.  I always have them in my fridge to snack on and this was the perfect addition for the mashed cauliflower.  I added a wedge at a time and of course made sure to do lots of taste testing.  In total, we used three wedges. 

When the mashed cauliflower had a mashed potato-like consistency, I spooned it into a shallow baking pan and let it bake for about five minutes at 400 degrees while me turkey en croute finished cooking.

While nothing can ever replace mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower comes in pretty close.  It is less heavy than mashed potatoes and the Laughing Cow cheese masked the sharpness of cooked cauliflower.  The creamy mashed cauliflower went perfectly with the incredibly flavorful turkey en croute.

I'll have to play around with this recipe some more in the future and maybe add blue cheese or gorgonzola to the mashed cauliflower instead? 

Thanks to everyone for entering my SeamlessWeb gift card giveaway.  Using Random.org, the two winners are #13 - Bianca of Confessions of a Chocoholic and #18 - Kim of "Teta" Means "Booby" Spanish.  I'll be emailing you both with more information about your SeamlessWeb electronic gift card!