Eat This: Cauliflower Hash Browns

Ah, the oh-so-versatile cauliflower. After recently making some Meatless Italian Sausage and Cauliflower Leaf Pasta, I needed to use the byproduct of that dish: a head of cauliflower.😄 So when I ran across a recipe for Cheesy Cauliflower Fritters, I had to try them!

A food processor makes short work of shredding the florets, so this is an easy recipe that doesn’t take much time to prepare. You could also shred the florets with a hand grater, but then those tiny bits of cauli would go everywhere and be a pain to clean up. Trust me – if you have a food processor, you’ll want to use it for this one.

Once the florets are shredded, it’s steamed until tender. Having microwaved riced cauliflower for other recipes, I just cooked it in the microwave for about 5 minutes. While it was still very hot, I added the shredded cheese and mixed well. After that, the eggs and coconut flour are mixed in.

The batter is dropped into a warm skillet and browned. I found that the batter lacked enough cohesion to stick together well (in a patty form), even with good browning, so just turned the patties into hash. I think additions of onion, mushrooms, and chopped peppers would turn this into a meal itself!

The flavor was very nice, especially in the very-browned parts; while not exactly like potatoes, it didn’t taste strongly of cauliflower, either. Next time, instead of using Himalayan salt, I’m going to try adding seasoning salt (and there was plenty of batter left over for another couple of generous servings). If you want to enjoy these in a patty form, I think additional binder would be needed – perhaps something like flax seed meal or additional coconut flour.

Bottom line: I found this a tasty substitute for potatoes in hash and will make it again. As the recipe is written, it’s keto, gluten free, and low carb.