Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes Recipe with Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Mashed potatoes have been a staple for as long as I can remember! This doesn’t mean that we have to stick to the same butter-laden, bland mash your grandma forced you to eat growing up! Change it up, vegan style, with roasted garlic and creamy cauliflower.

It’s straight-up potato madness right now at Serving Realness.

Is this a bad thing? HELL NO!

In fact, some professionals even consider potatoes a superfood!

So, in honor of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for these amazing and versatile vegetables!

What’s my secret to making creamy vegan mashed potatoes even better?

Simple:
Sneaky nutrition

Sneaky Nutrition Only Works If It’s Actually Sneaky!

I may be a full-blown vegan now, but growing up I wouldn’t eat vegetables if someone paid me to. My mother (bless her heart) even tried countless times to trick me into eating healthy.

Unfortunately, her version of cauliflower mashed potatoes were missing something… the potatoes.

Despite her best efforts, my fat-kid instincts kicked in immediately.

“You call these potatoes!?” I scoffed

“Wellllllllll, it’s actually just mashed cauliflower..” she finally admitted

BLEH! I knew it!

(It probably took me another 10 years to even try cauliflower again. Traumatizing!)

Now that I love cauliflower, I knew I had to give it another try. There’s no reason for such delicious foods to be so bland together!

I’ve boiled (hah, boiled..) it down to two factors that make or break cauliflower mashed potatoes:

• Roasting your garlic
• Making a homemade gravy

First, roasting your garlic takes it from a normal-everyday-ingredient to something that tastes (and smells) like it’s out of a 5-Star restaurant. Seriously!

Simply cut the bulb top off, pour on some olive oil (letting it drip down in-between the cloves), wrap in foil, and bake for 40 minutes. Easy enough, right?

Even better, the cloves turn into a soft paste when roasted. They pop right out and mix effortlessly! I didn’t have to do any mincing, and there’s no risk of chunks of garlic!

The homemade gravy is another no-brainer. Store bought can’t even compare!

Aside from flavor differences, this homemade vegan mushroom gravy only takes about 15 minutes to make (you can do it while the veggies are boiling!). There’s never an excuse for sub par flavor, but especially not the holiday season! 🙂

Print Recipe

Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes with Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Mashed potatoes have been a table staple for as long as I can remember! There's no need to stick to the same, butter-laden, bland mash your grandma forced you to eat growing up! These Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes go perfectly with a savory vegan Mushroom Gravy

Prep Time40 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Side-Dishes

Cuisine: American

Author: Nick @ ServingRealness.com

Ingredients

For the Mash

• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4-5 medium yukon gold potatoes cubed
• 1/2 medium cauliflower roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons vegan butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Nutritional yeast to taste (optional)

For the Gravy

• 2 shallots diced
• 1/2 yellow onion diced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 portabello caps diced
• %https://servingrealness.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/gravy-portabello.jpg
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable broth preferably low-sodium
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tamari
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary optional

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 400ºF
• Cut the top off of the garlic bulb, pour olive oil to coat, wrap in foil, and bake for 40 minutes to roast
  
• While the garlic is roasting, go ahead and bring a large pot of water to a boil
• Add potatoes and cauliflower and boil, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until soft
• Drain the veggies, mash, and incorporate other mash ingredients (including the roasted garlic cloves)

For the Homemade Gravy

• Sauté the onion and shallots in the oil until translucent
• Add mushrooms and chopped rosemary
• Cook until mushrooms are fragrant and shrink a bit
  
• Sprinkle the flour on top of the mixture
  
• Immediately add the broth and tamari, stirring to incorporate evenly
• Add the extra sprigs of rosemary for extra flavor infusion (optional)
• Simmer on medium heat until thickened (5-7 minutes), stirring frequently
  
• If it doesn't seem to be thickening, add a tad bit of flour. If it thickens too much, add a bit of vegetable stock
• Remember to remove the whole rosemary before serving!

Notes

Store gravy separate from mashed potatoes, both wrapped tightly in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
The more accustomed to the flavor you become, the more you can experiment with the potato to cauliflower to ratio! You could even use 100% cauliflower if you wanted 😉