This keto cauliflower mash, with its epic browned butter sauce, is one ideal and easy low carb side dish! As with one simple trick, the resulting mash is thick and scrumptious (rather than soupy or wet!).
Low Carb & Keto Cauliflower Mash
i.e. Faux-Tato Mash!
If you’ve tried keto cauliflower mash in the past, but weren’t too into it’s watery qualities (ahem, soup!)… you’re going to love this simple hack!
You’ll simply be roasting the cauliflower florets, as opposed to boiling or steaming them. You see, cauliflower is roughly 90% water (while potatoes are roughly 80%), so you definitely don’t want to be introducing more to the mix!
And yes, the florets will become a tad dry while roasting, but you’ll then introduce more liquid (and lusciousness!) in form of some sour cream and browned butter!
The resulting mashed cauliflower is incredibly tasty, and has a lovely bite and texture to compliment all your favorite dishes!
p.s. its particularly good with my keto Swedish meatballs (you’re welcome!).
Low Carb & Keto Cauliflower Mash
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 4-6 thyme springs
- 1/4-1/3 cup sour cream to taste
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 2 cloves garlic ran through a press
- 1/4 cup Parmesan optional*
- kosher salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C and break up the cauliflower head into florets. transfer onto a rimmed baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and place a handful of thyme springs on top. Roast for 20-25 minutes, or until it just begins to brown.
- Transfer roasted cauliflower florets to a food processor and blend with the sour cream. Set aside while while you make the brown butter sauce.
- Heat up the butter in a small saucepan over medium/low heat. Continue to cook the butter for a couple minutes until it just begins to turn golden. Add in the garlic, a couple more thyme springs and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until everything is nice and browned.
- Pour in about half of the browed butter and parmesan (optional) onto the cauliflower and continue to process. Check for seasoning and if need be, feel free to adjust the texture with a touch of heavy cream (or even a tad of unsweetened almond milk).
- Reheat right before serving.
i made this for Thanksgiving… for myself! (I can’t have mashed potatoes.) They were fantastic. Someone else made mashed potatoes that looked like soup…. I was more than happy to eat the cauliflower! I subbed dry leaf thyme for sprigs and chopped garlic from the jar in place of fresh. Come to think of it, I subbed greek yogurt for the sour cream which I later found buried in the fridge and a dry grated type of feta in place of Parmigiano which I also thought I had, but did not. I guess this proves this is a no fail recipe!!
First time I was able to eat and enjoy Cauliflower Mashed. I absolutely loved this recipe and when served with the meatball recipe it made it a five star!
Wonderful to hear Michelle! 🙂
Yum! Easy! Don’t use too much garlic, or it overpowers it. I steamed the cauliflower rather than roasting, as I was short on time, and used cream cheese instead of sour cream, because that’s what I had. I did include the parmesan. Make sure to taste for seasoning before serving.
Don’t put your oven on, microwave it without any water at all until cooked and it is just as amazing.
Sorry I must disagree – I have tried both methods and roasting the cauliflower does indeed dry it out a lot – in the past when I microwaved, had to squeeze a lot of excess water out. Dry-roasting as this recipe suggests makes the mashed cauliflower perfection – and with the added sour cream and browned butter? Amazing! : ) Yummmm!
How much is a serving.
Wow, I have been making cauliflower mashed faux-potatoes for years but this is the best recipe I have ever used. Roasting the cauliflower first to get the excess water out is key!
I was eating this out of the pan. Absolutely amazing. I’m going to be cooking with more fresh herbs from now on. Can we freeze this?
Hi there – thank you for publishing the recipe and I really would like to try it. Any chance of having the measurements in metric as well please? I have no idea on what a 1/4 cup is… 🙂
I have an app on my phone “convert me” that helps with the conversion from imperial to metric. Hope that helps you!
This was the best cauliflower mash that i’ve made since becoming keto. Thanks so much for the recipe and this site.
Easy and good! Added rosemary along with the thyme. Substituted chive cream cheese because I didn’t have sour cream. Delicious and low carb!
will be serving with roast lamb coated, of course, in garlic and rosemary so will leave out the garlic. But, do you think I can make ahead and throw in the small crockpot on warm then pour the browned butter over at serving time?
will be making the sour cream shortly.
your recipes are divine
Any chance this will work with frozen cauliflower?
Yes! I made it tonight with Frozen cauliflower. Amazing! Steamed in the microwave for 5 min. Tossed with 1tsp olive oil, a little salt, pepper and allspice. Baked in the oven @ 425 until just starting to brown. Didn’t have sour cream so I used cream cheese.