Faux Potato Salad

​Anyone remember the mashed cauliflower incident?   (It's worth revisiting that blog post just for a laugh.)  I only wish that I had captured the kids faces in pictures when they realized that I had served them mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes.  My kids STILL remind me of how cruel of a joke that was to play on them.  I may never live that down.   It's been almost a year and a half since I pulled the cauliflower prank on my family - I think it's time to pull another cauliflower/potato swap - don't you?

I found a recipe for faux potato salad in my Cooking Light magazine.  My first thought was that it sounded delicious.  I was curious about how a potato-less salad would taste and I knew that my family would get a kick out of another sneaky cauliflower dish.

Faux Potato Salad
1 head medium cauliflower, broken into florets
1 carrot, sliced
2 hard cooked eggs, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 celery rib, sliced
1/4 pitted green olives, halved
1/4 cup chopped dill pickle
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

​Bring 1 quart of water to a boil.  Add cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes.  Drain.  Pat dry with paper towels.

​Add carrot, eggs, green onions, celery, olives and pickle.

​In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper.  

​Add to cauliflower and toss to coat.

​So it didn't take long for my family to realize that the bowl of potato salad that I put on the table, didn't actually have any potatoes in it.  I recently forgot to put the chicken in a pot of chicken soup so they naturally assumed that I had just forgotten to add the potatoes to the salad.  It took more than a little convincing to get them to understand WHY I had intentionally left out the main ingredient in the potato salad.  Once they tried it, the review were mixed.  Ben and I thought it was delicious.  Yes, even Ben thought the potato-less potato salad was a hit.  My daughter tasted a bite but it was obvious from her face that she wasn't a big fan. My son didn't want to have anything to do with my cauliflower salad.  (Still upset about the previous incident I suspect.)

​At only 61 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving, I can enjoy this faux potato salad without guilt.

Ciao!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe