This dish is so delicious and so decadent and the perfect meal choice for a special holiday. I first made this with traditional mashed potatoes but I feel that the mashed cauliflower is just as good, if not better, and a great accompaniment to the creamy and earthy flavors of the mushroom sauce.

My mom and I loved to experiment in the kitchen. I feel like we must have seen a recipe similar to this somewhere but the first time I made this, I was pretty much winging it. I’ve tried this with and without parmesan, and the parmesan adds an extra sumpin’ sumpin’ to the sauce.

I know a lot of people don’t love mushrooms, but I’m a huge fan and feel like you could never have too much mushrooms in your food. But if you don’t like mushrooms, you could easily remove it from the recipe and still have a delicious meal.

One thing to note when making this meal is timing. There are several components to this dish and you want to make sure you do things in the right order so that everything is done at the same time and you eat your food warm.

The first thing you want to do is roast your garlic for the cauliflower. Roasting garlic takes about 35 min and can be set aside to cool once it’s done, so you can focus on the other components of the meal. Then you can focus on the meat and sauce.

The Meat

Again, I try to make meals that are customizable and include ingredients that can easily be swapped out to accommodate various dietary preferences or tastes. Pork chops can be easily swapped out for thinly sliced chicken breast or even a thin steak. Pork chops are a favorite of mine, and my preferred choice for this meal.

I usually purchase my pork chops in bulk from Costco. They come on the bone and are very thick. When I get home, I remove the bone and cut them into 1/2 inch slices. If you can find thin, boneless pork chops at your local supermarket, that would be the easiest option. I also don’t mind a little fat along the side, but if you don’t like it, by all means trim it. Then you want to season liberally on both sides with salt and pepper.

Searing the pork is an important step because it gives the pork a nice crust, which locks in the moisture.

The sauce

After you brown the meat, you will begin the sauce in the same pan. This allows the flavors from the meat on the bottom of the pan to transfer to the sauce. Using the same leftover oil, saute the garlic, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning. Ideally when you cook garlic, you want to start it in cold oil and let the garlic heat up with the oil, but since we just browned the pork chops, the oil will already be hot.

After the garlic is fragrant and starting to brown slightly, add the mushrooms and cook until soft. Add the wine and deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom of the pan to release the bits from the meat into the sauce. I didnt feel the need to add any stock or broth to the sauce because when you cook the mushrooms, they release a lot of liquid. If you feel like its a little dry or you want more sauce, add chicken stock with the wine.

Once it comes to a boil and the alcohol is cooked out, stir in the heavy cream. Again, bring to a boil and reduce slightly. Turn off the heat, add in the parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste and voila! Your sauce is made. Pour the sauce over the meat and finish in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

While the pork chops are cooking you can begin steaming the cauliflower. You can use frozen cauliflower if you want to cut corners a little bit. One the cauliflower is soft, mash the cauliflower, roasted garlic, and heavy cream with an emersion blender or fork. Be careful to add only a little heavy cream at a time because there is a lot of water in the cauliflower and you don’t want it to be too loose. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.