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Creamy Loaded Cauliflower Casserole Bake is a low carb and keto substitute for Loaded Potatoes. It includes all of the traditional flavors like sour cream, cheese, green onions, and crispy bacon. The only difference is that you swap the potatoes with cauliflower florets (which cuts each serving to 4g net carbs). Enjoy this as the perfect keto side dish for steak like my boneless sirloin, air fryer steak, or garlic butter steak bites.
Why Make Loaded Cauliflower Bake
- Cuts carbs: this keto loaded cauliflower bake as all the flavors of loaded potatoes with a fraction of the carbs by using cauliflower. Each serving is about 4g net carbs.
- Keto Side Dish for Steak: potatoes makes a great substitute for steak, but if you’re aiming to cut carbs, they aren’t an option. This loaded cauliflower casserole is a perfect substitute.
Ingredients Needed
- Cauliflower: I buy this as a whole head and cut it into florets. You can also buy these pre-cut to save time. Generally, 20-24oz is enough
- Green Onion: I chop these into the green and white parts.
- Butter: I use unsalted butter because I’m adding salt to the dish.
- Garlic: This loaded cauliflower casserole recipe works best with fresh minced garlic
- Cream Cheese: I use full-fat cream cheese that is softened
- Spices: this recipe includes salt and pepper as well as my homemade buttermilk ranch seasoning.
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Cheddar cheese: I use shredded cheese.
- Bacon: You can use any bacon that you prefer. For keto, it’s best to use Sugar-free Bacon. You can crisp the bacon in a pan or make bacon in your air fryer.
- Olive Oil
- Sour cream
How to Make Keto Loaded Cauliflower
- Roast the cauliflower on a baking sheet for 20-25 minutes or make air fryer roasted cauliflower. The cauliflower will get tender and some parts will brown up.
- Make the creamy cheese sauce: Sauté until the onions and garlic in butter until they are translucent. Then add the spices and cheeses (~3 minutes)
- Mix the cheese sauce and the roasted cauliflower, then add it to a baking dish to bake.
- Load the toppings: make the baked cauliflower loaded by adding some dollops of sour cream, the green parts of the green onions, and the crumbled bacon.
Top Cooking Tips & FAQs
- Use pre-cut cauliflower to save time: Generally, two bags (20-24oz total) is enough.
- Adjust the spice to taste: you can add salt and ranch seasoning to taste. Simply stir in a smaller amount into your cheese sauce and taste it before deciding to add more.
Does it matter if you roast or steam the cauliflower?
One of the keys to this recipe is to cook the cauliflower before placing it into the cheese sauce. This ensures that the cauliflower cooks fully during the last round of baking.
Since sharing this recipe, a lot of people have asked about whether it’s ok to steam the cauliflower. You should steam the cauliflower if you’d like to cut down the pre-roasting times.
One tip would be to steam it so that it’s still pretty crunchy and blanched. This will allow the cauliflower to still have big chunky bites. If you steam the cauliflower more fully, then it might taste more like a loaded cauliflower mash, which is still delicious, just not what we were going for in this recipe.
This recipe has about 300 calories per serving.
This loaded baked cauliflower has 4g net carbs.
You can use my recipe for mashed cauliflower and top it with the toppings instead.
Cauliflower is very versatile. Some
of my favorite options are garlic butter steak bites, ninja foodi pot roast, pan seared scallops, and air fryer tilapia.
Recipes to Enjoy This With
- Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Pot Roast Recipe
- Air Fryer Garlic Butter Steak Bites
- Fall Off the Bone Ribs
- Keto Ninja Foodi Pressure Cooker Pulled Pork
If you try this recipe, please stop back and leave it a star rating and/or a review in the comments. Stay connected & share photos of your creations with me & others on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
Loaded Cauliflower Casserole Bake
Use DRDAVINAHS at checkout to save on some equipment & ingredients!
Ingredients
- 1.25 lb cauliflower head, cut into florets
- 6 Green Onion, chopped into the green and white parts
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 3 cloves Garlic, minced
- 2 oz Cream Cheese
- 1/2 tsp Natural Ancient Sea Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
- 1.5 tsp Homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix, optional
- 3/4 cup Organic Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
- 4 slices Sugar-free Bacon, crumbled
- Olive Oil
- Dollops of sour cream, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
- Toss the cauliflower with ~2 tbsp of olive oil then add it to a baking sheet. Roast the cauliflower on a baking sheet for 25 minutes. The cauliflower will get tender and some parts will brown up.
- While the cauliflower is roasting, make the cheese sauce: Add butter, the white parts of the green onions, and the garlic cloves to a skillet on medium heat. Sauté until the onions are translucent (~3 minutes)
- Add heavy cream, cream cheese, salt, ranch seasoning (if you’re using it), and pepper to the skillet with the onions, garlic and butter. Turn the heat to medium low and continue to cook until the cream cheese is melted. Stir in 1.5 cups of the cheddar cheese to finish the cheese sauce.
- Mix the cheese sauce and the roasted cauliflower, then add it to a baking dish. Top it with the remaining cheddar cheese and roast for an additional 20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender.
- Top the baked cauliflower, with some dollops of sour cream, the green parts of the green onions, and the crumbled bacon.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Details
The nutrition facts come from entering the recipe ingredients into Spoonacular API, a database of food ingredients. They may vary for any recipe based on the exact product used. The keto sweeteners I use have 0g net carbs & are not included because sugar alcohols do not impact most people. This is provided as a courtesy, but you can do your own calculations if you wish!
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