Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole
Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole – the best, easy to make recipe for loaded cauliflower casserole. Low-carb and Keto friendly, perfect for the holidays.
Baked or boiled cauliflower florets, in creamy and flavorful cheesy sauce, topped with more melty cheese and bacon.
While cauliflower is one of my all-time favorite vegetables, it is also a staple on low-carb diet. This is why I use it in my recipes more often than ever.
This creamy cauliflower bake (au gratin) or casserole requires minimal simple ingredients and under 1 hour to make. Super easy, great way to incorporate cauliflower into your diet.
Let’s be honest, do you like Thanksgiving food? I personally only like specific dishes like scalloped potatoes, turkey and a good green bean casserole.
Since I try to stay away from potatoes, but I’m still cooking them for the holiday this year, I just had to make a nice side dish for myself. I’m speaking of this Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole.
This is a basic recipe, but you can adapt it to your taste.
It almost tastes like loaded potato, but you are going to know that by just looking at the ingredient list.
These are options to enhance the flavor by adding different seasonings and cheese of your choice. I’ve kept it simple – salt and pepper and sharp cheddar cheese. Gruyere, Parmesan of Provolone could be used and also Italian seasoning could be added.
How to make low-carb cauliflower casserole?
- Get all of your ingredients:
- cauliflower
- garlic
- cream cheese
- heavy cream
- sour cream
- cheddar
- salt + pepper
- bacon
- green onions (optional)
2. Prepare the cauliflower. Since cauliflower is raw and hard,
You need to first pre-cook the cauliflower. There are two options you can choose from, but please keep in mind that the taste and texture of the final product will differ.
Option one is to bake the cauliflower florets at high temperature, until tender. We need cooked cauliflower, as a result the whole dish cooks faster and tastes better.
Second option is to boil cauliflower for 5 minutes, then rinse with cold water and drain. This process softens the vegetable and this way it cooks fast with the sauce and also is able to absorb more creaminess from the sauce.
3. Prepare the creamy sauce by cooking together the cream cheese and heavy cream at low temperature, stirring constantly so cream cheese is completely dissolved in the heavy cream. Combine with sour cream, salt, pepper, bacon and some cheese. As a result, you get your creamy casserole sauce.
4. Combine cooked cauliflower with the sauce, top with more cheese and bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbly on top.
Loaded Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole:
You can easily call this low-carb, Keto cauliflower casserole loaded.
Yes, cauliflower is already healthy, but unless you are on low-carb diet, you may not this of this dish as a healthy one. Yes, to some people the amounts of cheese, bacon, cream and cream cheese does not make this a healthier dish.
It is very difficult, but not impossible to make this dish vegan. Even though, cauliflower is healthy and low-carb, it definitely does well with creamy sauces, cheese and bacon.
Why I call this Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole loaded? Because the use of sour cream, bacon and cheese almost remind me of a “loaded baked potato”/
As I mentioned above, toppings are optional and you feel free to experiment.
More Cauliflower Recipes:
Low-Carb Cauliflower Casserole
Ingredients
- 20 oz cauliflower
- salt and pepper to season the cauliflower if baking
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp paprika — optional
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 cup cheddar
- 6 slices bacon — cooked
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- green onions — topping, optional
Instructions
Prepare the cauliflower:
-
Option one: Cut into small florets, place on a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil and bake at 425 F for 20 minutes.
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Option two: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add cauliflower and cook for 5 min. Drain, rinse with cold water and drain well.
Prepare the sauce:
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In a saucepan, combine cream cheese and heavy cream, heat on medium-low heat, stirring to melt and dissolve the cream cheese. Add salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika. Add sour cream.
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Grease a 9x13 or smaller casserole dish. Add cauliflower. Pour the sauce on top. Add 1/2 of the bacon (chopped). Add 1/3 cod the cheese and stir. Top with the remaining cheese.
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Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 F, until the cheese melts.
-
Top with bacon and green onions.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Calories: 262, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 12g, Cholesterol: 66mg, Sodium: 567mg, Potassium: 302mg, Carbohydrates: 5g, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Protein: 8g, Vitamin A: 645%, Vitamin C: 34.2%, Calcium: 152%, Iron: 0.5%
This is so easy to make and perfect for the holidays. Tasted delicious!