This past Christmas, I wished my 20-year-old food processor a happy retirement. Before the beginnings of Radiant Rachels, I made do in the kitchen with the most minimal amount of equipment possible. Mainly because my house didn’t have much baking supplies, but also because that meant I had less dishes to do. A dozen cookies made with one ugly blue plastic bowl and a soup spoon? With some eyeballing practice, I could do that no problemo.

Then Chew introduced me to the wonderful world of raw treats; I desperately wanted to join the date-and-nut party. I was able to do so because of the aforementioned 20-year-old food processor my mom pulled out from the top shelf. This hand-me-down from my aunt has served me well these past few years, despite allowing dry ingredients to escape the bowl via a hole in the middle of the blade. Chew often forgot about The Hole and would dump cups of floury ingredients directly into it.

“The Hole, Chew!”

Eventually we figured out a procedure where I would cover the hole with two fingers and she’d dump in the ingredients. #teamwork But lookie here! It’s a sparkling new food processor, with no hole!

Side note: My chive plant revived itself! Chive vs winter, 1-nothing.

While dish washing is still not my preferred ‘therapeutic’ activity (as my roommate would describe), sometimes it’s worth washing all the pieces of a food processor to get better results in a quicker time. For example, take this mashed cauliflower. Using a food processor will transform the white cruciferous vegetable into a faux-mashed poe. So sneaky.

Potato purist may scoff at the idea of mashed cauliflower. But roasted garlic does magical things and cauliflower won’t leave you feeling like you just ate a full Thanksgiving feast. This Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower recipe has the texture of whipped potatoes and is a cinch to make!

Later this week I’ll be sharing a Vegan Lentil Shepherd’s Pie recipe that incorporates this mashed cauliflower, so be sure to check back!