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Cauliflower & Leek Mash
As you may or may not know, our family is on the GAPS diet, working on healing gut issues and food intolerances. It’s a long, slow process, but we are seeing noticeable differences in our health and wellbeing, and we are actually really enjoying the food! (To find out more about what we’re doing and the changes we’ve seen, listen in to my podcast ‘A Quirky Journey’.)
One of our staple side dishes in this starch-free phase of our lives (yep, no starches – but we’re surviving!) is my creamy, delicious, cauliflower-leek mash. It’s our mashed potato, our white sauce (thinned down with a little more chicken broth), the base for ‘cream of’ soups, the filling for chicken pot pies and tuna mornay… We love it. And it’s got so much goodness in it, it’s comfort food in every sense of the word.
Below is the basic, dairy free, cauliflower and leek mash recipe (with a couple of variations), and coming up in the next few days are some of our favourite recipes that use the mash as a base.
Here’s my recipe for making the chicken broth for the recipe (highly recommended – tastes awesome!!), or you can make your own coconut cream (recipe in my cookbook) and use that instead. In a pinch, just use water and add the Thermomix vege stock paste (or chicken stock paste) to taste. It still is delicious.
You’ll notice I use a fair bit of fat in this recipe. On GAPS, you add a lot of good quality fats to your meals, as this helps to satiate the appetite, and is your energy source instead of sugar. If you want to know more about how and why to get good fats into your diet, listen to our podcast with Mark Follett, he explains it really well and gives some great tips for how to eat this way!
Ok, so even if you don’t need to be on the GAPS diet, try this mash. You’ll benefit from having less starches in your life, and it’s good to have a change from the usual mashed potatoes – you may find that it’s so tasty you prefer it!
Enjoy.
Cauliflower & Leek Mash
2015-02-23 05:05:47
Ingredients
- 800g cauliflower florets
- 150g leeks, white only, sliced
- 200g chicken broth, or coconut cream
- freshly ground black pepper
- 60g duck fat or coconut oil or ghee
- 2 tsp vegetable stock paste or 1 tsp herb salt (to taste)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and chop roughly 5 sec/speed 3. (You may need to leave some of the cauliflower out of the bowl until you've done this step, then the rest should fit.)
- Cook 20 mins/Varoma/speed 1.
- Blend 30 sec/speed 8.
- Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula, then reblend 10 sec/speed 8.
- Season to taste.
Notes
- You can steam vegetables in the Varoma on top of the bowl while the mash cooks - thinly sliced carrots, broccoli florets, green beans, etc. If they aren't quite cooked through after 20 mins, add another 5 mins cooking time before blending the mash.
Quirky Cooking https://www.quirkycooking.com.au/
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This looks delicious! I am going to try it with your paprika chicken for dinner tonight 🙂
Awesome!
Just made this one. Impressive flavour and texture. Thank you. A great one for the repertoire. Thanks Jo.
So happy you liked it!
This is delicious. There’s just one problem though……..there won’t be left overs for the creamy bacon and vege soup…… which is why i made it in the first place! This will become a weekly staple I think. Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
Ha ha, sorrrryyyy!! 😉
Best Mash EVER!!
Ooooh so yummy! Even my fussy boys liked this, thank you so much for the recipe : )
Both myself and my husband have fallen in love with your creamy bacon and vege soup, we love it so much we want to have it every night, had to go out for a drive today to find another cauliflower. As we live in Tasmania it’s the perfect meal on these cold winter nights or in fact any night. Thanks so much for sharing. I am looking forward to your demo in Hobart, have booked my ticket.
Can this be frozen?!
Very yummy by the way!
Yes- it would be fine. 🙂
Love your recipes, but don’t have a
thermomix. Is your cookbook only for thermomix?
Hi Debra – Yes my book has the methods for using in a thermomix. If you subscribe to my newsletter it has the FAQ’s E-book and at the front of the book it has how to convert my recipes. 🙂
I made this last night as I had a whole cauliflower to use up and thought it would be nice for a change. It was nice – perhaps a bit too heavy on the leek flavour for my liking, but I may have added more than the recipe called for, I can’t be sure. Anyway, that’s just personal preference.
The consistency was lovely and it’s a good, carb free alternative to mashed potato.
So that was last night. Just now, I had a bowl of left over mash with a few ladles full of left over sauce from a Jamie Oliver chicken in milk roast I did the other night (so basically it’s the juices from the roast chicken combined with milk, lemon rind, sage & garlic which all make the most amazing sauce). The mash and “broth” combo was divine!!!! I can’t for lunch tomorrow to have it again!
Sounds delicious! You could always go with half onion, half leek instead, or just less leek altogether, if you don’t like the flavour as much. Happy cooking.
This is a lovely recipe Jo, thanks for posting!
I’m on day 8 of introductory GAPS, and searching for lots of recipes to make life a little easier. Have you considered adding a GAPS category to your recipe options, so that GAPS-legal recipes are easier to find?
It is something I would like to do, I will just have to see when I can get to it. For now, just look at all my recent posts of what we are eating day to day, and the recipes we are cooking up, because of course we are still on gaps . All the best 🙂
Also – type gaps into the search bar and it will come up with any of the recipes that I mention gaps in 🙂
I have converted my husband from mashed potatoes. He likes the cauliflower mash so much that we have it once a week. I also use it as the sauce in my vegetable lasagne. It’s so yummy, one of my favourites. Thanks Jo.
So can you do this without the leeks ?! ( My sister can’t tolerate Leek or onions but can tolerate a small amount of garlic)
Yes maybe add a little bit of herb salt for more flavour 🙂
really tasty, thank you!
I only have coconut milk, can I use this? What quantify would work?
Yes, just use 200g
This is truly delicious! I can see it becoming a favourite, especially as I have stopped eating white potato. I reckon with an egg and some flour it would also make fritters. (That is if I can keep the leftovers till tomorrow!) 😉
Made this tonight, omitted the leek (as I didn’t have any), and oh my gosh this is the creamiest, smoothest, most beautiful-tasting cauli mash. I’ve also found my new low-carb bechamel sauce substitute! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Hi Jo, thanks for this, can’t wait to try. Could I substitute the duck fat/ghee/coconut oil with olive oil or nuttelex (a butter substitute)? My daughter is allergic to dairy and hasn’t yet tried duck/pork so I wouldn’t be able to use any of these in the recipe.
I’d use olive oil – nuttelex is made from highly refined oils, not great. 🙂
I love love this recipe and it freezes and defrosts so well!!!! Got cauliflowers for 99c today so im making three batches… one for a layer in a “lasagne” pastaless of course and 2 for the freezer. Less washing up for me and whole caulis take up so much room in the fridge!!!
Hi jo can I use chicken stock instead of the chicken broth?
Yes that would be fine 🙂
Just made this tonight for my boys for something different and they loved it, even to the point where they said it will now replace potatoes which is a big deal for them. Obviously a winner. Thanks for the recipe Jo.
What temperature do you cook this on in the thermomix?
Varoma temp 🙂
Jo this is just delicious. I made it last night to accompany my slow cooked cranberry glazed lamb shanks and it was a perfect accompaniment.
Thanks for a winning side!
Thank you for the excellent recipe! I have been trying to get more veg and broth into my toddler where I can, and this was a huge winner!
As we are not on gaps I just used up a mixture of lots of different veg that I had in my fridge.
A great, simple, delicious side that will be a staple in our house.
This is so delicious!!!!!
This is my absolute favourite thermie recipe. I could eat this every day! I have shared it so many times and everyone who has tried it loves it (my mum even pops over bearing leek and cauliflower so I can whip some up for her to take home). Thanks so much 🙂
Oh that’s awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂 xx
OMG the cauliflower mash is amazing! I could of just had that for tea. So glad there are left overs for tomorrow…..or a snack later tonight 😉
So glad you liked it!
Jo do you think this will freeze?
Ohh I dont have themo mix 😤
Hi. I love making this using chicken broth but want to make it creamy to accompany something without having the Asian flavour of coconut. Could I use cream?
Yes, for sure:-)!
Mine was too runny how can I thinking it
You can’t really, once it’s made – unless you add more cooked cauliflower and blend! Reduce the broth or coconut milk next time for a thicker mash.
Hi Jo, I was hoping to make this tonight- I have brown onions, purple onions and a bunch of spring onions on hand. Unfortunately no leeks! Can you recommend if any of the onions listed above can be substituted for the leeks and if so what quantity? Many Thanks in advance. PS I am LOVING the FB videos of what you are cooking at home- so inspiring. I find it endlessly amusing and seriously impressive how capable you are at cooking one handed while filming with the other! So multi talented you are :0)
Hi. Yes, you can use any other onions for this recipe:-) Thank you so much for your kind words. I am having a lot of fun making the videos and sharing them with you guys:-). I am so used to do it with one hand now…it feels natural to me:-).