Loaded Cauliflower Tots Recipe

Loaded Cauliflower Tots. I repeat: LOADED CAULIFLOWER TOTS!  These babies taste just like a baked potato, all wrapped up in a delicious and savory cauliflower tot!

Friends, the time has come for you to go make yourselves these LOADED Cauliflower Tots.

They’re simply delicious and will blow your mind with the texture, flavor, and — yet — healthiness, all in tater tot form.  Amazing!

This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for.

These tasty tater tots are loaded with all the deliciousness of a baked potato, yet are low in carbs (just 1.5 carbs)!  From one tot lover to the next, these are next level tater tots.  Plus, you only need 8 ingredients to make them right now!

Make sure to dip your cauliflower tots in THIS greek yogurt ranch dip to be in healthy tater tot heaven.

HOW TO MAKE CAULIFLOWER TATER TOTS

Let me tell you something. Learning how to make homemade tater tots is easy. So, naturally, learning how to make cauliflower tots is just as easy. FACT – all veggie tots are easy to make.

Amazeballs.

Here’s how to make cauliflower tots:

1. Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
3. Break the cauliflower head into florets.
4. Cook the cauliflower florets in a steamer basket over high heat.
5. Prep the rest of the ingredients for the cauliflower tater tots recipe.
6. Mash the cauliflower. How to mash cauliflower? Use a potato masher or a food processor and mash until the cauliflower is evenly mashed.
7. Mix the mashed cauliflower with the egg and the rest of the ingredients needed to make loaded tater tots and stir until everything is mixed together.
8. Form the cauliflower veggie tots using your hands.
9. How to cook tater tots? Bake them! Baking the cauliflower veggie tots means less oil and healthier tater tots!

How to make cauliflower tots paleo:

Making cauliflower tots paleo is actually pretty easy.  Since we’re already avoiding breadcrumbs and lots of oils and processed foods, we’re on the right track for paleo cauliflower tots.  Depending on your paleo beliefs, you may or may not choose to eat dairy.  Since dairy is the only thing in this recipe that isn’t 100% paleo, you can remove the shredded cheddar cheese and greek yogurt to make it paleo.

You could use a paleo cheese substitute, but it’s not necessary.  Those ingredients are added especially to make these loaded cauliflower tots taste, well, loaded.  They’re not essential for the tots to hold together when baked.  This is also how you would make these cauliflower tots non-dairy, too.

How to make cauliflower tots without eggs:

This cauliflower tots recipe uses one egg to help hold it all together, but it’s easy to replace the egg if you’d like to make these tots without eggs.  You can just try to form them together without an egg, which will be more difficult, but not impossible, or you can make a flax egg substitute.  Flax “eggs” are a great alternative for those who have allergies to eggs.  To do so, you’ll need to make one flax egg, which is made by combining flaxseed meal and water.

To make 1 flax egg, combine:

• 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed
• 3 tablespoons of water

Stir well, and then allow the mixture to set for about 5-10 minutes.  Then, use as you would a regular egg.  This can also be done using ground chia seeds.

How to make cauliflower tots with almond flour (without breadcrumbs):

Since I mostly follow a clean eating lifestyle, I don’t use breadcrumbs in my recipes.  Instead, I love to replace them with almond meal.  Adding almond meal not only helps to make this recipe gluten-free, clean, and paleo, it also adds in additional nutrients and protein, without any of the empty carbs that you would get from breadcrumbs.

In order to make cauliflower tots with almond flour, just replace 1:1 the amount of breadcrumbs you would normally use.  The almond flour (or almond meal) will work perfectly and you’ll never even notice the difference with the taste!

CAULIFLOWER VS BROCCOLI TATER TOTS

When I made broccoli tots for the first time, my mind was totally blown at how easy it could be to turn something that’s super not good for you into something that’s actually healthy.  My kids still ask me to make them broccoli tots ALL the time.  Broccoli tots!  Super cool.  BTW if you want my broccoli tots recipe, you can click here.

Then, I made crispy sweet potato tots because YES and we all need sweet potato tots in our lives.  These were a big hit, too.

Recently, I have started to realize all the possibilities of turning lower carb, higher nutrients veggies into tots.  A great veggie to turn into a tot is cauliflower.  I figured I would try out cauliflower tots since cauliflower looks so similar to potatoes and can mimic them in so many ways (see my cauliflower mashed potatoes and cauliflower gratin posts for more on that). For realz, veggie tots are totes amazing!

While I love the broccoli tots and sweet potato tots we’ve made, too, there’s just something about the cauliflower — maybe it’s the color or the fact that it’s loaded with all sorts of goodness, they’re probably my fave.

HOW MANY CARBS ARE IN CAULIFLOWER?

This is the beautiful thing about using cauliflower instead of potato to make your homemade tots recipe — you’re already reducing the carbs a significant amount. Plus, when baked, we don’t have to worry about any unnecessary oils to fry them in so you’re making cauliflower tots low carb. Ok, so, how many carbs are in cauliflower? Consider this: 1 cup of cooked potato is 26 carbs. Compare that to 1 cup of cooked cauliflower, which is just 5 carbs.  Pretty drastic, right?

In one serving of these tots, which I’d say is about 6, you just have 1.5 carbs.  That’s it!  Crazy, right?  All the stuff we add to make it loaded are also low carb, namely the dairy and bacon, which are both higher in protein and fat to make the tots filling.  It’s a beautiful thing!

HOW TO BAKE CAULIFLOWER TATER TOTS

Baking the cauliflower tater tots instead of frying them results in healthier tater tots, for sure. Not sure how to bake tater tots and for how long to bake tater tots? Don’t worry, I have the answers!

To bake the cauliflower tots…

1. Place tater tots on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
2. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake the cauliflower tots until the bottom side is golden brown. This should take approximately 20 minutes.
3. Flip the cauliflower tots and bake for additional 5-10 minutes.

HOW TO MAKE LOADED TATER TOTS WITH CAULIFLOWER

To add more flavor and texture into the cauliflower tots, we made them loaded with all the yummy and savory flavors of a baked potato, like crispy bacon, sliced green onion, and cheddar cheese.  I also added greek yogurt, sea salt, garlic, and pepper to make sure the loaded tater tots are PERFECTION.

OMG, these are my new fave.

HOW TO FREEZE CAULIFLOWER TATER TOTS

If you want to freeze cauliflower tater tots for later…

1. Place them in a Ziploc bag before baking;
2. squeeze the excess air out of the Ziploc bag;
3. freeze the cauliflower tots.

To cook tater tots from frozen…

1. heat the oven to 350 degrees F;
2. bake for 20 minutes on one side;
3. flip the cauliflower tots on the other side and bake for 20 more minutes.

However, if you don’t want to freeze them and you just want to know how to reheat tater tots, here’s what you have to do:

1. preheat the oven to 350 degrees F;
2. place the cauliflower tater tots in an oven-safe dish and cover them with aluminum foil;
3. heat them up for 10-15 minutes or until warmed through.

I wouldn’t recommend microwaving the tater tots because that will result in a soggy mushy mess.  A tasty mess, but not very tater totty.

3 MORE HEALTHY CAULIFLOWER RECIPES

Did this baked cauliflower tots recipe make you fall in love with cauliflower? I hope it did! Because I have more awesome, delicious and healthy cauliflower recipes for you.

CREAMY PARMESAN CAULIFLOWER MASHED POTATOES

I already mentioned this Creamy Parmesan Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes recipe. And it’s time to talk about it more because it’s truly amazing.

Cauliflower mashed potatoes are a great low-carb alternative for mashed potatoes and, with my tips, a clean and healthy recipe, too. Without compromising the texture and flavor. So tasty! Get the recipe.

CAULIFLOWER TORTILLAS

Cauliflower is so versatile. These Cauliflower Tortillas prove cauliflower’s versatility. And they are so amazing.

These grain-free tortillas are only 42 calories each and they are perfect for Mexican dishes. Enchiladas, burritos, tacos – all made low-carb with the Cauliflower Tortillas. How amazing, right? Get the recipe.

HOW TO MAKE CAULIFLOWER PIZZA CRUST

Speaking of delicious comfort foods made low-carb. Learn How To Make Cauliflower Pizza Crust and enjoy everybody’s favorite food guilt-free.

This Cauliflower Pizza Crust is easy to make and perfect for satisfying your pizza cravings. Get the recipe.

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Loaded Cauliflower Tots

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

50 mins

 

Loaded Cauliflower Tots. I repeat: LOADED CAULIFLOWER TOTS! These babies taste just like a baked potato, all wrapped up in a delicious and savory cauliflower tot!

Categories: Clean Eating. Gluten-Free, Low Carb, Make It Healthy, Sheet Pan, Side Dish

Difficulty: Easy

Keyword: cauliflower tater tots, cauliflower tots, cauliflower tots recipe

Servings: 6

Calories: 51 kcal

Author: Lacey Baier

Ingredients

• 1 large head cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 egg
• 4 slices nitrate-free bacon
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 2 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• greek yogurt ranch dip, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. Break the cauliflower into florets.  

3. Place the cauliflower florets into a steamer basket and cook, over high heat, until tender.  Once they’re cooked, set them aside to cool.

4. Cook nitrate-free bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat until it’s crispy, then chop it into small pieces. Set this aside.

5. Mash the cooked cauliflower in a mixing bowl until it’s evenly mashed. You can use either a potato masher or a food processor.

6. Take 3 cups of the mashed cauliflower and add it to a large mixing bowl, and then add an egg, the chopped bacon, almond meal, shredded cheddar cheese, plain greek yogurt, sliced green onions, sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper. Stir this together until completely mixed.
7. Scoop approximately 1 heaping tablespoon of this mixture using your hands and gently press between your fingers to form a ball, then shape into a tater-tot shape.

8. Place the tot on the prepared baking sheet, and then repeat with the remaining mixture.

9. Place in the oven and bake until golden brown and crispy, about 25-30 minutes, turning after 20 minutes, once the bottom side is golden brown.  (Be careful when you flip them, as they can stick to the parchment paper.)

Recipe Video

Nutrition Facts

Loaded Cauliflower Tots

Amount Per Serving (6 tots)

Calories 51 Calories from Fat 36

% Daily Value*

Fat 4g6%

Saturated Fat 1.4g7%

Cholesterol 12mg4%

Sodium 89.5mg4%

Carbohydrates 1.5g1%

Fiber 0.6g2%

Sugar 0.6g1%

Protein 2.5g5%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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