Looking for a side dish or something for the breakfast table? Cauliflower hash browns are a light choice for both and beyond! Better than potatoes!

Hail the glorious starch that holds together our world. Who would think that this simple or rather large molecule, that’s basically the fat of plants, is good for anything else besides baking?

Plants convert CO2 into glucose using sunlight then converting all the unused glucose into starch for later use. This energy storage is also used by the seeds until a suitable soil and growing condition is found and new life can sprout.

After knowing how important this material is for all living creature, it sounds such a waste throwing in a spoonful into our food just to thicken it up a bit, but humanity made bigger crimes in life before.

Starch surrounds us and not just hypothetically but actually it surrounds us. Wall boards that used in many modern buildings use starch as a binding agent while paper production and the textile industry also enjoys its benefits.

Many things in our modern life wouldn’t even exist without this marvelous material. For example, Hash brown would never have been invented without it.

If anyone has ever made hash browns other than pulling them out of a freezer knows that hash browns are made of riced or shredded potatoes pressed together with a bit of onion and seasoning.

Probably a very few of us ever wondered about the chemical binding process occurring during the preparation but here we are. Now, we know that moisture and naturally present starch binds the pieces of potatoes together.

Unfortunately, those who don’t like potatoes or even worse those who can’t have them, enjoying hash browns is out of their reach. Not like anyone who doesn’t like potatoes will ever miss hash browns but those who are connected to Mother Earth through potatoes, sawing this bond is great suffering.

Not like anything would ever replace starch or rather the craving for starch but somehow we have to survive the harsh starchlessness of our probably self-imposed diet.

Life shouldn’t be suffering because we can’t have what we would like to. We should always be grateful for what we have and enjoy it to its maximum. This doesn’t imply that we shouldn’t dream and seek changes in our life.

On the contrary, we definitely have to gaze at the horizon every now and then, yearning for what could lay behind our sight. What other way we have explored that riced cauliflower would be baked to an excellent hash brown.

Sure enough, something that isn’t full of starch, won’t light up the reward system in our brain at first bite nor the tenth, but cauliflower is like arranged marriages. Some grow to love each other while many just wait their journey to end.

Cauliflower hash browns won’t glue marriages together as it barely can keep itself together when riced. It needs a fair amount of effort to pick up the pieces and make it work.

Cauliflowers are mainly made up of water but to make its pieces stick together while applying heat, we have to get rid of that excess liquid. After a bit of microwaving, steaming or salting, we can squeeze the water out of the cauliflowers with a kitchen cloth.

Optionally almond flour, coconut flour or flaxseed meal can be added to the mixture which will help reach a drier texture. Conversely if we skip the whole water squeezing, we will end up moister, softer texture cauliflower hash browns.

Luckily, there are no rules how we have to make our cauliflower hash browns and we are free to have them however we like even if it is with a spoonful of starch.

Ingredients:

1lb / 500g Cauliflower (riced)
7oz / 200g Cheddar (shredded)
½ Onion (finely diced)
2 Eggs
½ teaspoon Salt
Optional:
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper
- ½ teaspoon Cayenne

How to make Cauliflower hash browns:

Rice the cauliflower with a food processor or with any other old school method like a shredder. If we are after a bit drier hash brown it is recommended to remove some of the water that is in the cauliflower. This can be done by simply salting the riced cauliflower and let it sit for about 20 minutes. If we are in the rush we can steam it or simply toss the whole thing into the microwave oven for 2 minutes.
Shred the cheese in case if it’s not shredded already.
Finely cut the onion up using a food processor or a trusty sharp knife with the roller technique.
Using a kitchen towel or cheese cloth squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the salted, steamed or microwawed shredded cauliflower.
Put all the ingredients into a big enough bowl and mix well together.
Make little apricot sized balls out of the mixture and place one batch onto a low to medium heat oiled or buttered frying pan.
Press them gently but firmly with a spatula so they take up a round shape. Make sure the oil is hot enough before spreading the balls out.
Fry each side on low to medium heat until golden brown. This should take about 5 minutes for each side. It tends to stick and burn so check regularly but carefully as it falls apart easily before a crust is formed. A spatula is a must for stainless steel frying pans.
Optionally cauliflower hash browns can be made in the oven too. Use a parchment paper and bake them until golden brown for about 30-40 minutes at 350°F / 180°C.

Enjoy!

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Cauliflower Hash Browns

Looking for a side dish or something for the breakfast table? Cauliflower hash browns are a light choice for both and beyond! Better than potatoes!

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Low Carb Meal, Side Dish

Cuisine Gluten free, Keto, Low carb recipe, Sugar free recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 20

Ingredients

Optional:

▢ ½ teaspoon Black pepper
▢ ½ teaspoon Cayenne

Instructions

Rice the cauliflower with a food processor or with any other old school method like a shredder. If we are after a bit drier hash brown it is recommended to remove some of the water that is in the cauliflower. This can be done by simply salting the riced cauliflower and let it sit for about 20 minutes. If we are in the rush we can steam it or simply toss the whole thing into the microwave oven for 2 minutes.
Shred the cheese in case if it's not shredded already.
Finely cut the onion up using a food processor or a trusty sharp knife with the roller technique.
Using a kitchen towel or cheese cloth squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the salted, steamed or microwawed shredded cauliflower.
Put all the ingredients into a big enough bowl and mix well together.
Make little apricot sized balls out of the mixture and place one batch onto a low to medium heat oiled or buttered frying pan.
Press them gently but firmly with a spatula so they take up a round shape. Make sure the oil is hot enough before spreading the balls out.
Fry each side on low to medium heat until golden brown. This should take about 5 minutes for each side. It tends to stick and burn so check regularly but carefully as it falls apart easily before a crust is formed. A spatula is a must for stainless steel frying pans.
Optionally cauliflower hash browns can be made in the oven too. Use a parchment paper and bake them until golden brown for about 30-40 minutes at 350°F / 180°C.