You can never have too many side dishes during the holiday season! Drinks are flowing, inhibitions are lowered and food is abundant. Isn’t that what makes the holiday season so great? So add this incredibly easy to make loaded keto cauliflower casserole to your list of dishes to make this year!
Low Carb Sides For The Holidays
You might be worried about the upcoming holidays and justifiably so. Temptations are high and family is constantly asking you to try their dish or why you aren’t eating anything! You can cut out the holiday stress by preparing some low carb sides that even your non keto family and friends will enjoy! Some of our favorites are:
- Low Carb Rolls (Matt’s favorite!)
- Low Carb Stuffing (Megha’s favorite!)
- Keto Cornbread
- Green Bean Casserole
I know you didn’t think we would have you completely set for the holidays. Guess what?! You can have a keto friendly holiday season without missing out on your faves.
FREE PRINTABLE: Keto Food List
Join 150,000 others to get a FREE keto food list and new recipes every week!
Cheese Sauce Is A Must!
Any casserole needs to have a good base whether it be cheesy or not. We personally think cheesy is the way to go to ensure everyone will dig in. The beauty about a casserole dish is that preparation is very simple and it’s near impossible to make a mistake.
For this casserole dish we’ve given you a simple cheese base that you can use for any casserole dish. The combination of cream cheese and sour cream give this dish a creamy, slightly tangy profile, and for cheeses, we kept it pretty mild with Monterey and cheddar cheese. You don’t want the creamy base to overpower the other ingredients, but you can honestly go with any cheeses you have in the fridge.
Layer And Bake
There is no particular rhyme or order to making a casserole dish. Ultimately everything ends up in the same dish baked to meld into one another. It’s easy and you can add any filling or toppings you want. The only note I would mention is to make sure everything is coated in the cheese sauce before you bake. That will make every bite perfect!
Since everything is already cooked in this recipe you’re not baking to complete the cooking process. This means you can play around with cook time. You definitely want to make sure all the cheese has melted through and everything is hot, but other than that, if you’re in a time crunch this recipe can be baked and out in no time!
Tip: we like to turn on the broiler for 1-2 minutes at the end to slightly brown the cheese!
Presentation
When you’re serving up a casserole dish, especially during the holidays, you want people to be impressed. You want to make it seem like you slaved over the stove to make the dishes. And, the best way to create that illusion without all the slaving is to hit it out of the part with presentation.
Setting aside some of the ingredients, as we did here in this recipe, allows you to top the final dish and give it some nice color. Fresh herbs always work great so even if it’s not called for in the recipe itself you can still finely chop up some parsley or chives and top before or after you bake!
Stay On Track This Holiday Season!
A great way to approach the holiday is to make a decision and not stress about it too much. Do you plan to indulge in some of your favorite holiday foods or do you want to stay on track? Once you make that decision for yourself you’ve built it into your plan so you don’t need to feel guilt or regret!
Either way you decide to go we’ve got you covered with all the keto holiday recipes you are going to need from sides, to desserts!
Loaded Keto Cauliflower Casserole
What You Need:
Ingredients:
- 1 large cauliflower head, cut into florets
- 1 cup Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
- 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
- 8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled, divided
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 tsp brown mustard
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp pink salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 large green onions, chopped and divided
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place cauliflower florets and 3 tablespoons of water in a large microwave safe bowl. Cover with damp paper towels and microwave 7-8 minutes, steaming until tender. (Steps shown in video above)
- Meanwhile, in another large bowl, combine half of each cheese, half of the bacon, half of the green onions sour cream, cream cheese, mustard, herbs and spices, mixing well. Add the steamed cauliflower florets and the water from the bowl, tossing gently until coated.
- Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish and top with remaining cheese, green onions and bacon.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and beginning to brown. If desired broil for 1-2 minutes at the end for browned crispy cheese topping!
- Garnish with green onion and serve immediately.
- Best stored in an air tight container in the fridge up to 5 days.
I will have to try this one for sure. ANYTHING that is Cauliflower Cheese related is a win. As a kid, cauliflower was our ‘go to’ veg, but fun fact…my Dad wouldn’t eat it unless it was smothered in cheese sauce. If only he knew hat he was going keto even in the 70
Nice recepie.love it.my macros are fat is 101 ,protien is 61 and 20g carb.Can i consume this at one meal in a day? I mean if i cook 61g of chicken in 101 g of butter with salt n pepper and i eat it at dinner time only and on next day i make other dish the same way.is it ok?? Can i do this?
Loved recipe… Gracias
This is delicious and a must have for Thanksgiving.
Do you think (cooked) frozen cauliflower florets will work with this recipe? If so, how many ounces should I use – 24 ounces (two 12 ounce bags) or less?? The fresh cauliflower at my local stores looks OLD.
I am also going to make the turkey breast. None of my local stores carry the bone-in, skin on turkey breast, fresh or frozen. The closest I could find is a frozen, boneless, skinless turkey breast that is roasted in the bag (Jenny O).
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
I don’t like using a microwave. Do you know how long I would steam the cauliflower on the stove top for the correct doneness or at least the texture that I’m looking for? I don’t want to mess it up. Cooking reputations are on the line during Thanksgiving. 😂
Hey Friend, I am with you on not using microwave. I just made this recipe. Used my steamer and steamed for about 12 minutes. Took off heat, and left lid on while I did other tasks. I checked it prior to taking off heat, FORK TENDER would be my answer. Like Megha I prefer smaller bite size florets. After steaming my medium sized pieces reduced to small size. Will bake it for meal time tomorrow. Hope that helped. PS> Any non meat eaters, simply add a splash of liquid smoke. And I used Gruyere-such a high roller huh?.
Loved this! It tastes like a loaded baked potato. Megha has a way of making everything look so effortless! Love you Megha ❤️
Will be making this for Thanksgiving
Wow! I can hardly wait to make this! I’m house-bound today,we have a big winter storm and it’s snowing and beautiful! Just like you two. I love watching your videos & making your recipes.
So dang yummy could eat it everyday👍
I absolutely love making Keto cauliflower cheese, it is almost a meal in itself and I always have enough for leftovers the next day. Not considered adding brown mustard, I imagine that will give it a nice little kick! Sim x
Made it for Thanksgiving very good recipe I did add broccoli to mine
I made this for thanksgiving dinner and everyone was commenting on how good it was!
My husband and I loved this recipe. It was easy to put together and had an awesome flavor. I will make it often!
We love this recipe , But we did make a few tweaks to it. WE add chicken and a full block of cream cheese.
I love this recipe and all the other recipes you give Blessed you and your family
This loaded cauliflower recipe was delicious. My whole family enjoyed it.
So glad to hear this!
Great side dish for Thanksgiving! My new favorite for every day.
I love cauliflower and now I love it even more!!
Can this be made ahead and reheated in the oven?
It should work – but if it’s a day or so ahead, you may just want to put it all together and store in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.
Love this recipe. The website is very user friendly. The option to jump to the recipe is awesome!
So glad you like it!
I just used riced cauliflower. I really love this recipe!
This was very easy to make and delicious. I added shredded chicken for additional protein. It was better as leftover dinner.
Love this, I mixed broccoli in, so good.
Very flavorful, we forgot it is healthy.
How can you add chicken to the recipe
This was so yummy! I added rotisserie chicken for a one dish meal. Excellent! Even my hubby was impressed and he’s not a huge cauliflower lover.
Sounds delicious! We’re glad you liked it 🙂
Super recipe! I love this! Thank you so much 😘. Hugs to Theo ❤️