If you are trying to get the kids to eat more vegetables, Cauliflower Tots are the way to go! A clean eating alternative to tator tots, Cauliflower Tots are fun to eat, super tasty and easy to make.
Dairy Free and Gluten Free Cauliflower Tots
It’s great to get kids (adults too!) to eat more vegetables, but if you have to add unhealthy ingredients such as cheese, cream or refined flour to your vegetable recipe then you kind of cancel out some of the health benefits. I wanted to make my cauliflower tot recipe as clean as possible, while still being tasty 😉
Instead of the Parmesan cheese called for in a lot of the recipes I found online, I use savory pine nut crumbs.
If you have our Clean Cuisine book, you know I am not gluten-free. However, I know a lot of our readers try to avoid gluten, so I wanted to make sure the recipe had a gluten-free option. I tested the recipe two times using two different breads. For the gluten free option in the recipe below I used Canyon Bakehouse 7-Grain bread, which is one of my favorite nationally distributed brands (not all gluten free breads are clean!) And for the gluten-containing option I used Food for Life brand spouted whole grain bread. For the record, both breads yielded tasty results!
Dip It!
Although you can certainly eat the Cauliflower tots straight up, I always serve them with a dip of some sort. If I am short on time I just serve them with Dijon mustard or Tessie Mae’s Organic Ketchup (as far as I know, this is the only store-bought brand of ketchup sweetened with dates rather than sugar.)
If I have extra time I’ll make my own ketchup recipe or my creamy honey mustard sauce (my favorite!)
Eat More Cauliflower!
And finally, if you are looking for additional creative cauliflower recipes here are a few my family loves:
- Chinese Style Cauliflower Stir Fry Rice
- Dairy Free Cauliflower Mushroom Risotto
- Riced Cauliflower Tabbouleh
- Dairy Free Coconut Curry Soup (with Hidden Cauliflower)
- Cheese-Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe
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A delicious clean eating alternative to tator tots, this recipe for dairy free and gluten free cauliflower tots is one the whole family will love!
Ingredients
- 2 pieces gluten free whole grain bread (such as Canyon Bakehouse Gluten Free 7 Grain Bread)
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 1/8 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (OR 3 teaspoons dried)
- 3 organic (pasture-raised eggs (such as Vital Farms))
- 1 head cauliflower (big stem removed, florets and smaller stems cut into 1-inch pieces)
- Unrefined avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add bread slices, pine nuts, salt and rosemary to a food processor; process into fine bread crumbs.
- Beat eggs in a shallow bowl.
- Designate one hand as your “wet hand” (for eggs) and one as your “dry hand” (for bread crumbs.) Using your wet hand, dip one cauliflower piece at a time into egg mixture and turn to coat evenly. Shake off any excess egg, then carefully dip the coated piece into bread crumb mixture. Then use your dry hand to add more bread crumb mixture to the cauliflower piece, pressing the crumbs gently. Transfer coated pieces to the baking sheet and repeat with remaining cauliflower.
- Brush or spray tops of cauliflower with a light coating of oil. Bake, flipping over halfway through, until cauliflower pieces can be easily pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.
LOOKING FOR MORE HEALTHY DINNER RECIPES?
If you liked the Cauliflower Tots recipe, be sure to check out a full month’s menu of delicious healthy dinner recipes (including weekly shopping lists!) in our Clean Cuisine Dinners digital cookbook.
Fooled my grandson and son-in-law last night with these. They had no idea they are cauliflower. These were the big hit of night!
However, Ivy, we really struggled with getting the bread crumb mixture to stick. We had to make a second batch of the crumb mixture because the first got too moist even though we tried to get all the extra egg off. Do you have any suggestions? I think this weekend we’re going to try to chop up the cauliflower in much smaller pieces and mix them directly in the crumb mixture. Have you tried that?
★★★★★
I am SO sorry I am just now getting back to you. I didn’t check comments over the weekend. But yes, I DO know exactly what you mean about the crumb mixture not sticking very well. I think the best suggestion I have is to just use two separate hands (keep one hand totally dry and then use the other hand to dip in the moist mixture–this should definitely help things a bit.) And no, I haven’t tried making the pieces smaller!? That might work very well!! Please do keep me posted if you try it that way…