Last night we had Coq au Vin which I usually serve with mashed potatoes to mop up that yummy sauce. Instead though, I decided to mix it up and go with a white bean puree. It worked great, however, next time I would leave it a little more dry so that it soaked up the sauce a little more.

It made me think of my favourite sauce soakers for meat dishes - for lighter seafood dishes I prefer rice. My all time favourite must be pureed celeriac (celery root). Something, I haven't tried but looks interesting is pureed cauliflower. If the taste is too intense, I might blend it with a bit of potato.

Any other suggestions for sauce soakers?

Bread is the ultimate sauce soaker.

Crusty.

Yorkshire pudding is a great soaker for a prime rib.

With dishes with gravy, besides the mahed taters, crusty bread is tops.

I have had pureed cauliflower. I wouldn't consider it a soaker like mashed potatoes. It is more of a low carb/healthy alternative to potatoes.

I've done pureed cauliflower before now. It tastes really good, not too intense at all. But as inky says it doesn't soak up the sauce in the same way that spuds do.

To avoid runny white bean puree I cook mine completely in 18% cream, after soaking the beans in water for at least 24hrs. Make sure you use just enough cream to cover the beans, and if you must add more liquid make sure it's already hot, so you don't stop the cooking process.

Another great alternative is parsnip puree. Very tasty, and has a natural sweetness. Usually I add a few drops of vanilla extract at the end of cooking, which accentuates this natural sweetness.

Not quite the same, but I really enjoy polenta as a side dish. I, too, have done the pureed cauliflower and have enjoyed it a great deal.

Polenta

Sweet potatos
Smashed Plantains
Cauliflower, whipped with Ricotta and cream
Turnips, also with Ricotta & cream

Noodles.

quote:

Doug Collins
Hermosa Beach, California

I agree with pretty much all of the above, so will only add items not yet mentioned.

1) Yuca Root, baked or boiled, and then peeled and mashed.

2) Rutabaga, prepared the same way as turnips.

3) If you really wanna try a cool thing, experiment with fresh beets. Take whichever 'starch' you are preparing, and titrate some beet content. It doesn't take much, and 100% beets would be too much, but maybe 15% beet content adds a bit of earth flavor that can really set itself off nicely with soaking up other flavors and matching with less fruit-forward wines.
Cheers!

I've been experimenting a lot lately with root vegetables and would highly recommend trying sunflower chokes for a puree, mash, or roast potato substitute.

They are very tasty - like a potato but with a subtle sweet/nuttiness that is a lot of fun.

So far, I have the best results with boiling them until slightly tender, then roasting them with rosemary, garlic, olive oil, salt/pepper.

Awesome suggestions!

Polenta is a great idea - reminds me that grits are great, too.

I love the root vegetable suggestions. Sarbuze, I'm with you on the sunchokes/Jerusalem Artichokes. I love them so much prepared in the way you describe, I haven't even tried to mash them.

Noodles are interesting. They certainly are great soakers, especially in Asian dishes, but somehow like rice for me, I think of them with thin slices of meat - like in stir fries. Beef Stroganoff is probably an exception, I can think of. Any others?

Oh, and here's another one - I'm actually eating it right now - risotto. While it's often flavoured on it's own, it still has the starchiness and soaker abilities to stand up to some big meat.

Parsnips.

quote:

Originally posted by grunhauser:
Parsnips.

I make parsnips usually once a week and definitely second this recommendation. Slice them about 1/6 inch thick (length wise), slather on olive oil, salt/pepper and throw them on the grill over medium heat. (A short blanch helps them cook more evenly on the grill)

They are quite versatile though, and go great fried as well.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sarbuze,

The other day I made a sunchoke puree, it's really good but it's such a b!tch to peel 'em!

This is a great thread, makes me even happier that I found and joined this message board.

Pureed cauliflower is nice (but already mentioned) -- I thicken it by stirring constantly over medium-low heat.

A tasty alteration to mashed potatoes is to add in some mashed carrots -- gives extra nuance to the potatoes, and some attractive color as well.

Hard to beat neeps and tatties all mashed up together. And a good stuffing with bread and potatoes and some herbage is a super great soaker-upper.

Stuffing - how did I miss that one??!! That is my favourite all time soaker - good one, Bowser. I actually got all posh and made a roasted garlic bread pudding recently as a soaker when I could have just made stuffing.

Interestingly, I've only had stuffing in addition to potatoes. I wonder if it's because most of the stuffings I've had have been really salty. Nice as a side, but too salty as the main soaker. I think I'll play around with some recipes to see if they can take up the main soaker duty.

Another vote for polenta....

And I don't know how I missed this thread either.....

quote:

A tasty alteration to mashed potatoes is to add in some mashed carrots -- gives extra nuance to the potatoes, and some attractive color as well.

My mom used to do that and I mean way back when I was under 10. Wow. Haven't thought about it in years. Loved it though. The butter looked great in it too. I remember that.

Yeah - the usual suspects that were already mentioned. I generally go mashed Cauliflower if I really want the closest feel when low carbing. I guess the color is meant to fool myself too.

I'm from the south, so I'll throw spoon bread out there. I'll post a recipe is anyone needs one.

Also, though I've never made it (I will soon), I had a creamed celery root that was unreal. Pomodoro - Boston.

keytohwy

Whipped turnips with ricotta and sour cream

Mashed califlower with sour cream, and a bit of parma

Mashed plantains

quinoa