MINTY PEA MASH IN A CAULIFLOWER STYLEE!

Everyone loves mashed potatoes. That humble of all potato based sides is near enough perfect with most meals and easy to russle up too for busy folk. It is however "Carbtastic" and then when you throw in the butter and milk (even cream) required to make that perfect mash and you have one calorific busting meal on your hands. Great when your wanting to treat yourself - not so much when your watching your eats!

So what can you do about it - the in thing with dieters I've noticed at the moment is to make mash using 

vegetables such as the carrot and swede mash on my "No Carb" shepherds pie.

 

I saw cauliflower being used a lot as a mash replacement but the thought of it just didn't appeal. "What can I do to jazz it up a bit" I thought and I came up with this minty pea version (minty peas! - a top yummers combination). Throws in some extra veg and your well on your way to that elusive five a day (or 8 or however many portions your allegedly supposed to have now-a-days).

MINT PEA CAULIFLOWER MASH

 

1 Medium Sized Cauliflower - Florets cut off in largish bits (see picture).

Handful Fresh Chopped Mint Leaves

2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 Finely Diced Onion

1 Sliced Leek

1 Grated Clove Of Garlic

Salt And Pepper To Season

50ml Vegetable Stock

100g Frozen Peas

1. Place the cauliflower in a pot of boiling water with the mint leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the cauliflower is just tender - this will depend on the size of your florets so keep an eye on it so it doesn't overcook.
2. Drain the cauliflower and mint and leave to one side to cool with the lemon juice added to help the cauliflower retain it's colour.
3. In the meantime throw your onions,leek and garlic into a large slightly oiled warm pan and fry off for a couple of minutes until both are just starting to soften. 
4. Add the cooled cauliflower and mint and fry again for another minute or two
5. Season with the salt and pepper before adding the stock. Turn to a low heat,cover and simmer for ten minutes stirring occasionally and breaking up the caluiflower as you do.
6. Whilst the veg and stock is simmering, cook up you frozen peas in a pan until tender.
7. After the 10 minutes simmer, tip in half of peas in the pan and blend the mix to a mash like consistency.
8. Mix through the remainder of the peas into the mash.

The whole peas in the mash give you a little burst of lovely pea goodness every now and then which adds an extra layer of flavor to the dish and whilst some would say lumpy mash is a crime against food I quite like to not blend the mash thoroughly so that you have a few different textures of the other vegetables in the mix as well as the whole peas

Enjoy this delightfully low cal alternative to stodgy potato mash with....well anything you like really. We enjoyed it tonight with a Chicken Kiev but some good old bangers and gravy would be equally scrummy.

So get mashing! No excuse not to now!