One year on St. Patrick's Day my dad put green food coloring in our milk and all of us kids thought it was the best. thing. ever. Our cereal felt so festive and cool. I thought of the green St. Patty's day milk when I ran across this recipe a little while ago and saved it to make this month. Who doesn't want to have a few cool side dishes in their recipe book? Especially healthy ones like this one. That green color? It's spinach. And those "mashed potatoes"? Cauliflower. 

Okay, wait.

Before you go clicking off this page, listen to me for a second. This tastes good. Really good. I-may-never-make-mashed-potatoes-again good. And this is from someone who previously only ate cauliflower if it were smothered in a cheese sauce. It's weird, but this really tastes a lot like mashed potatoes. Fluffy mashed potatoes, at that. Cauliflower doesn't get gluey the way potatoes do if you process it in the food processor so you can get this dish silky smooth. Win. Cauliflower is also lower in calories, carbs and higher in many nutrients than potatoes. Double win. And have I mentioned there is no peeling? Win, win, win. I'm telling you, give these a try and you'll find yourself making them more than just as a fun gimmick for St. Patty's day. 

Green Mashed No-Tatoes

By HeatOvenTo350 Published 03/12/2013

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, roughly chopped into florets
• 1 cup loosely packed baby spinach (not frozen)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons milk

Instructions

1. Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl with about two tablespoons water. Cover the bowl tightly with microwave safe plastic wrap and cook for two minutes. Stir then cook for another two minutes until florets are just tender. Drain water and set aside. Alternately, you could steam the cauliflower over the stove.
2. Drizzle the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for about a minute, then add the spinach and continue sauteing until the spinach just begins to wilt. Remove pan from heat and transfer garlic and spinach to a food processor or high-speed blender.
3. Add the steamed cauliflower to the food processor, along with the salt, butter and milk. Process until smooth and season to taste.

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Recipe Source: www.pbs.org/food