Honeyed Words: Food You Can Eat With a Spoon (That Actually Tastes Good)

Food You Can Eat With a Spoon (That Actually Tastes Good) · 13 March 2007

Jilly from The Onion Girl, ended up two places she wasn't expecting to be, in a hospital bed and in the Dreamlands. In both places, she was deprived of her body. Sometimes you just can't plan where you're going to end up or what resources you'll have. Tonight I was planning to be at home, using the blender, and when I went to turn it on, it didn’t spin. So much for that resource. At least I still have my body (and my trusty Cuisinart).

I know that great strides in hospital food have been made, but when I imagine what patients have to eat, it’s always the stereotypical watered down soup, overcooked vegetables, dry meat, and bland mashed potatoes.

I couldn’t image Jilly happy with such fare, so I was trying to think of a tasty yet easy to eat recipe when my boyfriend told me about “faux mashed potatoes.” He’d been happily munching on the catered lunch at his workplace, when a coworker looked at his plate and said something along the lines of “I don’t think I could take any more of those fake potatoes after eating them last week.” My boyfriend looked at his plate, looked at his coworker, and went “Huh? These aren’t mashed potatoes?” (I’ve done him an injustice here, he’s much more eloquent in real life). Turns out the imposters were made from cauliflower, and they tasted just fine.

After looking into the idea of “mashed cauliflower,” I decided to try it out for myself. I elected to create something a bit zestier than normal mashed potatoes and used goat cheese and leeks in my recipe.

Having never heard of faux mashed potatoes before, but made plenty of mashes out of actual potatoes, I felt fairly confident in winging a recipe, but I did skim the online recipes for helpful tips and tricks. Many thanks to Stephanie over at cooks.com for the tip on squeezing the water from the cauliflower. I was laughing about it in the kitchen trying to figure out the best method when my roommate piped up “I’ve never heard of squeezing the cauliflower, but I know you can squeeze the Charmin." (Apparently years of advertising backfired here). Kitchen humor, can’t beat it.

Faux Mashed Potatoes with Sausage

Picture of the Faux Mashed Potatoes

Faux Mashed Potatoes:

2 heads cauliflower
1 leak
4 oz goat cheese (with optional seasoning)
¼ tsp salt (or to taste)
¼ cup milk

Method:

Fill a large saucepan approximately two thirds with water and bring to a boil.

While the water is boiling, cut the heads of cauliflower into smallish florets and the white part of the leek into slices (think food processor friendly).

Add the vegetables to the water and boil until extremely soft and tender (about 10 minutes).

Remove vegetables from the water, drain well. Allow to cool enough so that they’ll no longer burn your hands. Place cauliflower and leaks in a clean towel and press the water out. You’ll be amazed how much is retained in the florets!

Add the drained and squeezed vegetables, goat cheese, salt, and milk to a blender or food processor and mix until puréed (I find this easier to achieve with a blender but alas, tonight it was not to be). Add additional milk if desired to achieve a more liquid texture. Serve warm.

I used Madame-Chêvere® Bruschetta flavored goat cheese which included a number of spices and accounted for the reddish coloring. If using an unflavored goat cheese, I would add more seasoning, perhaps a stronger tasting cheese, a garlic and basil mix, a rosemary and butter infusion, or any of the other tasty flavors that you normally associate with mashed potatoes.

These were a great accompaniment to the chicken sausage I served with dinner.

Cauliflower, Goat Cheese, Leek, Mashed Potatoes, The Onion Girl, Vegetarian