Cauliflower au gratin is a variation of potatoes au gratin that is a little more keto-friendly, and it tastes amazing. However, when searching for a cauliflower au gratin recipe, I realized that all the recipes I found required a few modifications to make them truly keto-friendly. So, I set off to cook my keto cauliflower au gratin. I removed the carby breadcrumbs on top, substituted heavy whipping cream for regular old milk, and used almond flour instead of regular flour. I also added a lot more seasoning because that’s how I roll.
This is a keto side dish that is vegetarian but absolutely not vegan as it relies on lots of yummy full-fat cheese and heavy whipping cream. If any keto vegans would like to submit a guest post with a modified vegan recipe, go ahead! If you already have such a recipe on your site, let me know, and I’ll include the link here.
Keto Cauliflower Au Gratin Macros
This recipe makes 8 servings, and here are the final macros:
- 5g net carbs per serving (39.9g total)
- 10.5g protein per serving (84.3g total)
- 33.4g fat per serving (266g total)
These are all the ingredients you’ll need minus spices. The full recipe is below if you keep scrolling, but I’m including this list here so you can see how I calculated the macros.
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets (17g net carbs, 1.6g fat, 11g protein)
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter (0g carbs, 24g fat, 0g protein)
- 3 tablespoons almond flour (1.5g net carbs, 11.25g fat, 4.5g protein)
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream* (13.4g carbs, 160g fat, 9.8g protein)
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese (divided) (6g carbs, 54g fat, 42g protein)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (divided)** (2g carbs, 16g fat, 18g protein)
*I confess that I usually make this recipe with half and half to keep the calories down. It reduces the fat content by a lot but only adds a minimal amount of carbs (because yes, your beloved HWC has carbs)…and it does not kick me out of ketosis!
**I’ve been known to increase the amounts of cheese because cheese is delicious, meaning I’ll go up to 2 cups of cheddar and 3/4 cup of parmesan.
The materials necessary to make this recipe are:
- Double boiler
- 13″ x 9″ baking dish
- Medium sauce pan
If you have any questions about this recipe or if you make it yourself (highly recommended!) and want to share your results, please leave a comment! I’d also love to see photos of your beautiful keto cauliflower au gratin.
Keto Cauliflower Au Gratin Recipe
Nutrition Facts
Ingredients
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets
- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons almond flour
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese (divided)
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (divided)
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Steam cauliflower in double boiler until cooked.
- Combine 2 tablespoons of butter with the almond flour in a medium sauce pan and stir for two minutes.
- Add the half and half and let it boil, stirring occasionally.
- Turn off heat, and add 1 cup of cheddar cheese and most of the parmesan.
- Mix cauliflower with cheese mixture in pan.
- Spread cauliflower mixture in the baking dish, and cover in remaining cheddar and parmesan.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until the top starts to brown.
- Let sit for about 10 minutes, and enjoy!
Can you use something else instead of tiger flour?
Almond flour should work as well, although I have not personally tried it!
I’m commenting again to note that when I first wrote this recipe, I was new to using keto flours and did not realize that almond flour was significantly lower in net carbs than tiger flour. I’ve since updated it so that it uses almond flour instead, which lowered the net carbs of each serving by almost one gram.
The flavor on this was amazing. I used 1/2 cheddar and 1/2 mozzarella because I didn’t have enough cheddar. I had a few issues though. The sauce never really thickened (maybe due to almond flour – maybe cornstarch would have helped, though I am not sure that is allowed). And there was SO MUCH SAUCE! Also this barely served 4 (not 8) – I used a whole head of cauliflower, but perhaps it was smaller than usual (giving approx weight in instructions instead of just “1 head of cauliflower” could be helpful). It was absolutely delicious and will make it again, but hoping it will thicken up a bit more (instructions just said “add 1/2 and 1/2 let it boil” but did not say how long – I turned off the heat right when it came to a boil. Maybe a longer boil would have thickened it up). The good news – I have 1/2 of this delicious sauce to pour over my zucchini noodles tonight since there was so much left over! Thanks for the recipe.
I absolutely loved this dish so much !!!!
This looks so good! I can’t wait to try this someday. Thanks for sharing!