This simple dish of cheesy purple cauliflower mash will be a wonderful surprise to the mid-week meal. It can be made with regular cauliflower, you just lose out slightly on the cool colour.
Cauliflower has gained a lot of attraction over the years with cauli rice and cauli cous-cous. Which I think is awesome! The more veggies the better!
But mash is something we use so often in our household. Whether its a base for beef bourguignon or to top a hachis parmentier, you can’t go wrong with some mash. But again, the more veggies the better! Why not add some cauli to our mash?!
Recipe for Cheesy Purple Cauliflower Mash
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
1 Cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 Medium potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
50g Tasty cheese, grated
10-20g Parmesan cheese, grated finely
2-3 Sprigs of thyme, leaves removed
Salt and pepper
Method:
- Steam your cauliflower until soft, around 15 minutes. Steaming helps to retain as much of the purple colouring. You can either steam or boil the potatoes until they’re soft too, around 20 minutes, depending on the size they’re cut to though.
- Once the veggies are all cooked, add them to a blender with the cheeses, thyme and salt and pepper then combine until it is smooth.
- Serve warm as a side, with some other veggies and protein.
Or indulge and just eat it all straight from the bowl!
It is super delicious by itself, but if you’ve got left overs you can experiment and try make some purple croquette type balls. They’re crunchy on the outside, and soft and melty on the inside.
To turn the mash into some of these crunchy snack balls we simply added a few tablespoons of flour and an extra handful of grated cheese to the mixture to thicken and bind the mixture more. Using two dinner spoons, grab a spoonful and shape it into a circle and drop it into a bowl of breadcrumbs (we used panko breadcrumbs).
Scoop it out and place all the balls onto a lined baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 20 minutes. Et voilà!
I have to say though, I feel that the crumbed version did remove some of the great flavour that the vegetables offer compared to when served in a mash.
