Here’s another recipe that I could not have foreseen myself making when I was younger. Cauliflower tots? Um, no thanks, as a young man who just assumed that a life of fried chicken, tater tots and soda were ahead of me, I had absolutely no need for vegetables!
But life seems to have a way with catching up with most of us, and as I approach 50, I’m more aware and appreciative of how valuable a healthy body can be. And that means more vegetables, but I’m not interested in the boring steamed or boiled versions that I think a lot of us grew up with. I’d rather spend a few extra minutes prepping a few ingredients and end up with a fun and tasty dish that I actually look forward to eating, rather than feel like I am taking my medicine.
And since I feel like I have pretty well settled on a more traditional homemade tater tot recipe, why not try and adapt that recipe to work with riced or grated cauliflower? Luckily, it worked pretty well on my first attempt, which is not a normal!
Same as with my potato recipe, after cleaning and roughly chopping the cauliflower into large pieces, I simply used my Vitamix filled four or five cups of water to very quickly “grate” my cauliflower by blending it into very small pieces.
You can of course use a normal box grater, but I enjoy kitchen gadgets and toys and like to find uses for my Vitamix whenever I get a chance. One you’ve grated the cauliflower, the most important step of the entire recipe comes next… squeezing the water out! The drier your tots are going in to the oven, the crispier they will be coming out, so… flex those muscles and start squeezing.
I’ve seen a few other recipes that call for coconut flour or other binding agents, maybe even conventional flour, but those options don’t interest me, and frankly seem unnecessary. Using a mini cupcake pan, and plenty of cheese and an egg or two, which helps ensure that this recipe is Keto compliant, I find that the cauliflower tots stick together very well and there is no need for extraneous ingredients.
Baked Cauliflower Tots
Ingredients
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese or less, according to taste
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon melted butter avocado oil, or olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- preheat your oven to 350 degrees
- remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower head and cut into florets and wash
- grate the florets into small pieces, I float the cauliflower in a few cups of water in my Vitamix and chop into little pieces simply by pulsing on and off a few times, very quick and easy
- using a cheese cloth, vigorously squeeze as much water as possible out of the shredded cauliflower
- place relatively dry shredded cauliflower into mixing bowl, add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly
- using appropriate cooking spray like coconut oil or avocado oil, grease a small muffin baking tin
- evenly spoon cauliflower mix into each of the 24 mini-muffin forms, pressing down a bit to compact the tots
- cook for 30-40 minutes, or until they look nicely browned with a little bubbling of the cheese
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