Side dish

Nagi's Creamy Cauliflower Mash recipe

Name: Nagi's Creamy Cauliflower Mash
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 kg cauliflower florets; 2 cloves of garlic, peeled; 1-3 tbsp water from cooking the cauliflower (optional); 30g butter; 25g hard cheese, grated (I use Pecorino Romano); 50g sour cream; ¼ tsp salt (I use kosher - reduce if using table salt); black pepper; 10g butter; chopped parsley

Jump to recipe

A good alternative to mashed potato; cauli mash is lighter but still satisfying. Goes well with rich, heavy dishes.

Prep10m
Cook10m
Total20m

quick vegetarian

Creamy cauliflower mash with butter, sour cream and Pecorino Romano

My No New Cookbooks rule went out the window for Nagi Maehashi’s Tonight. Dinner was spectacular so I had to really.

Tonight has an exciting recipe on every page. Okay, maybe Creamy Cauliflower Mash isn’t a jaw-dropper but what a staple. Plus it’s in keeping with my current “I want to eat carbs but more of the wholemeal/legumes/vegetable variety”.

The mash is beautifully flavoured thanks to the sour cream and Pecorino. The texture is light and smooth. It doesn’t have the heft of a potato or cannellini bean mash but I wouldn’t expect it to. I can imagine it working well as the topping for a really rich fish pie.

Notes

Some small amends I make to the recipe:

Steam the cauliflower instead of boiling it
Steam the garlic cloves at the same time as raw garlic is too pungent for me

Even the smallest tub of sour cream is way too much for this recipe. Happily it freezes.

I usually halve the recipe using just one cauliflower.

Recipe credit

Tonight by Nagi Maehashi.

Recipe

Nagi's Creamy Cauliflower Mash

Prep10m
Cook10m
Total20m

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Cauli mash

1 kg cauliflower florets
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1-3 tbsp water from cooking the cauliflower (optional)
30g butter
25g hard cheese, grated (I use Pecorino Romano)
50g sour cream
¼ tsp salt (I use kosher - reduce if using table salt)
black pepper

To finish

10g butter
chopped parsley

Method

Steam or boil 1 kilo of cauliflower florets until very soft (about 10 minutes in my saucepan steamer). I add 2 peeled garlic cloves to steam at the same time but this is optional; you could keep them raw. Reserve some of the cooking water before draining the florets.
Add the cooked cauliflower, garlic cloves, 30g of butter, 25g of grated hard cheese (I use Pecorino), 50g of sour cream, ¼ teaspoon of salt (I use kosher) and some black pepper to a food processor (or use a bowl with a stick blender). Blend until smooth. For a more purée-like texture, add the reserved water, 1 tablespoon at a time (I don’t add any). Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Transfer to a bowl and swirl the mash. Top with 10g of butter and scatter over chopped parsley if using. Serve immediately. Leftovers reheat well in the oven or microwave.