Vegan Millet Cauliflower Mash

How This Millet Recipe Came About

Living in Florida, I find it hard to keep organic potatoes at home more than a few days before they start sprouting.

As a matter of fact, I have some plants growing in the garden right now thanks to some sprouted supermarket potatoes.

Therefore, while I love potatoes, often I will not buy them because I know I will not be able to cook them soon enough.

When researching millet, the grain of the month, I read in The New Book of Whole Grains, that millet makes a great mock mashed potatoes.

Well, that got my attention.

It sure would be nice to make mashed potatoes with pantry ingredients.

After more research, I discovered a popular option is to combine millet and cauliflower.

Thankfully, cauliflower is pretty easy to get year round, fresh or frozen.

So now, the question was to come up with a tasty, creamy, garlicky, oil-free, whole-food plant-based version.

After a few trials, I came up with the recipe below.

While this millet mash does not taste exactly like mashed potatoes, it does have a similar warm, comforting creaminess.

Recipe Notes

There are many possible ingredient substitutions that can be made to this recipe.

Ingredients

Millet

The millet used in this recipe is hulled proso millet which is the most commonly available millet in the United States, as discussed here.

( For 14 online vendors of millet, please see this post with a free PDF download of whole grain vendors. )

Millet tends to be a very thirsty grain, very much like cornmeal.

For the most tender results, you can soak the millet grains overnight, in which case you can reduce the cooking water by 10 minutes.

As an alternative, you can cook the millet longer which is what is done in this recipe.

While millet is fully cooked within 30 minutes, by cooking it an extra 10 minutes, it further softens the grain and makes for a creamier, smoother texture.

Cashews

I like to use cashews in this oil-free recipe because they contain healthy fats which increase the creaminess of the mash.

For best results, make sure to soak the cashews a full 12 hours in the refrigerator – they will be creamier and more digestible.

As an alternative, you can add some water and cashews to a pot, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

The cashews will be soft and creamy but not quite as digestible as the overnight soaking method.

For a nut-free version, you can substitute the two cups of water with two cups of unsweetened plant milk of your choice.

Vegetable broth

Here, I used my own vegetable bouillon cubes using an MSG free version of Chef Jana’s recipe which contains salt from the miso.

You can use vegetable powder instead if you prefer or store bought vegetable broth.

The reason I like to use a vegetable broth is because I know I am increasing the trace minerals in the dish as well as adding depth of flavor – a win win.

If you don’t have any vegetable broth, some other options are to use more unsweetened plant milk or add white miso,  mushroom powder, or double the amount of nutritional yeast.

Garlic

I love garlic which is why this recipe calls for 6 cloves.

Feel free to decrease that quantity of even use garlic powder for a more subtle garlic flavor.

Notice that this recipe calls for water sautéing crushed garlic.

Typically, garlic is sautéed in oil but this recipe already has healthy fats from the cashews.

I have found that cooking the garlic first softens its flavor and also emanates a fantastic fragrance.

You just want to make sure to not burn the garlic as it cooks rather quickly.

This is why I recommend having the liquid ingredients ready to pour in pan as soon as the garlic is cooked.

Nutritional Yeast

The nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor to the mash as well as more good nutrition in the form of B vitamins.

For an equally cheesy flavor, you can substitute the nutritional yeast with home made Rejuvelac that has preferably been fermented for three days.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice typically helps “brighten” a dish by adding some acid to balance the fat. 

You can substitute with apple cider vinegar or another mild vinegar.

Rosemary

Rosemary is used here because garlic and rosemary is classic combination for mashed potatoes.

It also happens that I have a thriving rosemary bush in my garden.

Feel free to substitute with other herbs such as oregano, chives, bay leaf or even sage – according to your preference and availability.

Salt

Salt is optional here because there is likely to already be some salt in your vegetable broth.

I use Himalayan sea salt.

You could also use tamari to taste.

Cauliflower

As a rule of thumb, I used twice the volume of riced cauliflower to dry millet.

Adding in a fibrous vegetable lightens the mash.

You can substitute the cauliflower with parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes or pumpkin for an equally delicious mash.

Equipment Notes

You will get the most creaminess from this mash by using a hand blender.

A hand blender is easier to manage when dealing with hot liquids.

Obviously, if you would like to use an upright blender, then you will be best off cooling the cooked millet first before handling.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a pantry friendly millet mash for those times when you are out of potatoes or just because you are in the mood for millet.

Hope you give this recipe a try – wishing you a grainlicious experience!

All information in this post is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute nutritional, medical or health advice.

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