This is a legendary side dish in our house. Baked broccoli and cauliflower with a cheat’s cheese sauce PLUS there’s hidden bacon and mustard.
It’s the perfect recipe that’s also low-carb and keto friendly if you’re watching your carbs.
It can be confusing to decide which are the best keto vegetable side dishes to make. This delicious keto side dish is quick and easy too.
You may also want to see the best keto side dishes for pork, best keto side dishes for chicken, easy keto side dishes for salmon, and quick keto side dishes for beef.
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Are there carbs in broccoli and cauliflower?
Yes, there are carbs in broccoli and cauliflower but they are also high in fiber and nutrients. They are low in net carbs so perfect for those following a low-carb diet or keto diet.
Broccoli and cauliflower are so versatile lower carb vegetables and can be served baked, roasted, mashed, riced and even raw in a salad.
Nutrition per 100g:
Broccoli (raw): 4g net carbs, 2.8 g protein, 0.4 g fat, 34 calories.
Cauliflower (raw): 2.9 g net carbs, 1.9 g protein, 0/3 g fat, 23 calories
Nutritional values from cronometer.com
Cheat’s cheese sauce
The roasted broccoli and cauliflower are covered in an easy cheat’s cheese sauce recipe and flavored with a small amount of bacon and mustard for an extra tangy flavor.
The cheats béchamel sauce is wheat free and gluten free. There is no need to make a traditional cheese sauce in a saucepan, my cheat’s version is made with natural yogurt and egg yolk then poured onto the vegetable bake.
Ingredients
You can vary the vegetables you use, and vary the flavor you add to the sauce, depending on your tastes.
- Broccoli – cut into small pieces so they cook quickly and evenly
- Cauliflower – cut into cauliflower florets the same size (or smaller) than the broccoli so they cook evenly.
- Yoghurt – always use the natural unsweetened yoghurt.
- Egg yolks – the egg yolks make the cheese sauce thick and adds to the yellow/orange colour.
- Shredded cheese – choose your favorite cheese to use. I liek touse mozzarella or mild cheddar cheese. But stronger cheese such as grated parmesan cheese works brilliantly too.
- Bacon – use diced bacon. It does not need cookign before adding to this recipe. It will cook in the oven with the vegetables.
- Mustard – I like to use mustard powder (to keep the carbs low). Remember to always read the nutrition label to spot any hidden sugars, starches or wheat.
How to roast broccoli and cauliflower
You need to discover new and exciting ways to flavor your vegetables, especially for children. The roasted broccoli and cauliflower recipe is an easy mid-week side dish.
You simply throw everything together in a large baking dish and cook until soft and tender.
Broccoli and cauliflower are best cooked with some kind of moisture so they don’t end up burned, charred, or dry. Roast vegetables are best drizzled in olive oil, covered in a cheese sauce, or covered with foil so they retain their moisture.
Because the vegetables are oven-roasted, you can cook it alongside another oven dish such as roast lamb, roast turkey, or roast chicken
How to roast frozen broccoli and cauliflower
Frozen vegetables release a lot of water as they defrost so make sure to defrost and drain before cooking. Frozen vegetables might be softer, and less crunchy than fresh crisp vegetables.
Oven
1: Place the broccoli and cauliflower pieces into a baking dish.
2: Place all the cheese sauce ingredients into a measuring jug and whisk together with a fork.
3: Pour over the vegetables and sprinkle some more grated/shredded cheese over the sauce. I like to add shredded parmesan cheese sometimes too.
4: Bake at 180C/350F for 30 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and the vegetables are cooked through.
Air fryer
To cook bake broccoli and cauliflower in the air fryer you will cook it at a slightly lower temperature to keep the vegetables slowly cooking and ensures the cheesy sauce doesn’t dry out.
Before you begin, make sure your heatproof baking dish or pie dish is small enough to fit inside your air fryer. There must be at least 1 inch on all sides to allow the heat to circulate evenly.
You may need to halve this recipe to fit into a smaller dish, or make 2 smaller dishes and cook one at a time.
- Preheat to 160C/325F.
- Gently lower your baking dish onto the wire rack. Ensure there at least 1 inch space between the pie dish and the side of the basket.
- Cook for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your air fryer and the size of your baking dish.
If you love using your air fryer, I have 101 keto air fryer recipes for you to choose from (chicken, pork, ground beef, salmon, vegetables, and even desserts). Discover how to use your air fryer plus FREE printable air fryer cooking cheat sheets.
Storage
You can prepare the recipe the day before and leave it in the fridge, covered, overnight, then cook the next day. The prepared, but the uncooked recipe cannot be frozen. The raw egg yolks need cooking in the dish first.
Store your cooked broccoli and cauliflower recipe in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The baked recipe can be frozen for up to 2 months in an airtight container.
To reheat, place your ovenproof dish in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp the cheesy sauce and shredded cheese. Alternatively, you can microwave on the defrost and reheat setting as per your microwave instructions.
Variations
Any of the following ingredients would be delicious variations on the baked cauliflower and broccoli recipe.
If you don’t want to use the cheese sauce, you can spread the broccoli and cauliflower florets onto a baking sheet or sheet pan. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil, season with any of these flavors and place into your preheated oven.
- Vegetables – frozen vegetables (but defrost first and drain any excess water), fresh vegetables, capsiucm, peppers, zucchini, courgette,
- Herbs and spices – mustard, fresh garlic, garlic powder, onion flakes, chili flakes, taco seasoning, or even a tangy BBQ sauce. Lemon zest and lemon juice are also nice to add to the vegetabels BEFORE pouring the cheese sauce on top.
- Seasoning – I traditionally use salt and pepper, however new salt flavors are also popular such as lemon pepper, and chicken salt. Check labels for added sugar or wheat.
More broccoli and cauliflower recipes
Broccoli and cauliflower are so versatile and perfect for anyone who wants to reduce their carbs.
I love mashed cauliflower (instead of mashed potato), cauliflower rice (instead of white rice), broccoli and cauliflower bacon salad, and even curried cauliflower rice.
Creamy Cheesy Baked Low-Carb Broccoli and Cauliflower Recipe
Equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Saucepan
Ingredients
- 4 cups broccoli chopped
- 2 cups cauliflower chopped
Cheats Béchamel Sauce
- 300 ml natural unsweetened yoghurt natural unsweetened
- 3 egg yolks
- 50 g shredded/grated cheese
- 1 slice bacon diced
- ¼ tsp mustard powder
- 50 g shredded/grated cheese for the topping
Instructions
- Place the broccoli and cauliflower pieces into a baking dish.
- Place all the ingredients into a measuring jug and whisk together with a fork.
- Pour over the vegetables and sprinkle some more grated cheese over the sauce.
- Bake at 180C/350F for 30 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and the vegetables are cooked through.
Video
Nutrition
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Hi Libby. Do you have any sauce suggestions for say butterfly chicken? Tried your cheat bechamel sauce and perfect with broccoli and cauliflower bake but went wrong when tried it with chicken. We like sauces a lot and think this is one of the hardest things to give up!
I quite often bake chicken with tandoori paste and yoghurt, or I have a recipe for lemon and tarragon chicken. Using herb rubs are another good option, or some dips served on the side too.
Looks like a great recipe! Can’t wait to try making a sauce without flour in it. What would you suggest using the 3 leftover egg whites for?
I would make sugar free macaroons.
What sort of size dish? Or amount of cauli and broc for this recipe? Cannot wait to try 🙂
Mine was 11″x8″ (28x20cm) but be guided by how much broccoli and cauliflower you add 🙂
Yeah.. I think mine went wrong with the chicken too. Curdled and was really not good.
oooh something I can use my kefir (sub for yoghurt) for – thanks for this recipe.
What is bacon rasher diced?
Sorry that’s the english in me, a slice of bacon, diced. I thought I had updated all of these. Thanks 🙂
Love your recipes!
I made this last night for dinner guests to celebrate my husbands birthday, we are 3 weeks into LCHF and we all loved it. Thank you
Thank you so much for this recipe which we love. The cheats bechamel is brilliant and I’ll be using it again and again! I don’t eat dairy so I used goats cheese and OMG – amazing!
You don’t use dairy, so you used dairy instead?
Goats milk is still classed as dairy but the milks from different mammals have slightly different compositions, which is why some people may be allergic to cow’s milk but able to tolerate goat’s milk.
Hi
Would fromage frais work with this recipe?
Thank you.
I’m sure that would work. It would add a lovely depth of flavour to the sauce.
Libby I was really looking forward tothis but it curdled. Any ideas where I went wrong? Thanks
Hmm, not to sure what happened as yoghurt and egg yolks shouldn’t really curdle. Maybe look at the ingredients in the cheese or bacon in case there is something acidic in them perhaps?
Mine took on a curdled appearance too. My thought is that it was the egg yolks scrambling. I am not sure how to prevent that.
Hmm, I’m wondering if the mustard brands we are all using is having this effect. I either use very strong mustard or mustard powder, not the pourable mustard many use for hotdogs. Could this be the problem perhaps?
I used mustard powder as well. It’s just turning into scrambled eggs. When I scooped out all the cauliflower to store in the fridge, the clumps in the bottom of the pan were definitely just scrambled eggs. It didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t have the creamy texture. It’s like the moisture absorbed into the cauliflower and what was left cooked up as eggs do. I am contemplating trying it with pre-cooked (steamed) cauliflower.
I think I’ll have to make this again and see what is going on. Maybe I can come up with a tip or trick.
If you use prepared mustard (which has an acidic base) it will cause curdling.
Hi Libby. What amount of broccoli and cauliflower is the carb count you’ve given based on?
Really good question, I went back into my calculations and I used 2 cups of each, chopped. I’ve amended the recipe to clarify it. Thanks for picking this up.
Do you cover the dish?
No, I leave it to bake and brown gently. I love the crispy cheese on the top.
Must the bacon be cooked beforehand?
No, I just throw it in raw and it cooks along with the broccoli and cheese sauce (always test to ensure it has cooked thoroughly if you are concerned).
Thank you Libby.?
What kind of yogurt? Does Siggi’s plain work?
I use De Winkels yoghurt. Any natural unsweetened yoghurt will work.
I wonder if this would work in a low-carb lasagne…. anyone tried it?
WHAT IS 180c IN REGULAR FARENHEIT?
“Bake at 180C/350F for 30 minutes”
whenever i ccok cauliflower cheese it’s always watery at the bottom ? even tho i steamed it, and left it draining for a couple of hours, any tips for this, apart from that it was beautiful, will deffo make it again, thanks for the recipe ❤️??
Hi, Can this be frozen? Also how long will it keep in the fridge as my yoghurt has today’s date on. TIA, love your stuff
Aw thank you for your kind words, I absolutely love what I do and the lovely people who I “meet” here 🙂 And the answer is yes, you can freeze this, just be careful when you reheat it. I would avoid the microwave as it has a tendency to cook and “split” the cheese sauce. Once defrosted, reheat in the oven so the cheese sauce remains crispy on the top. If in doubt, always add some extra grated/shredded cheese for some extra cheesiness and crunch!
You can’t alter the servings anymore. Why?
The feature is still there. Simply dial up how many servings you would like to cook and the ingredients will recalculate for you 🙂
Hi Libby. I absolutely love you recipes. On this one, can you use sour cream instead of the yogurt? I do not normally buy or eat yogurt. Thanks.
Yes sour cream would work, as long as it is fairly solid or heavy set sour cream. Not the pourable type. The yoghurt I use is the thick type, so it needs to be similar in consistency.
very good recipe. Mine also took on a slightly curdled appearance but no one cared – it tasted wonderful! Being keto for almost a year now – we need new ideas for broccoli & cauliflower & this certainly hit that mark! I’ve used your cheat bechamel in the keto moussaka & I loved that as well.
Mine also curdled. I used De Winkel yogurt, Colmans mustard powder, 3 size 7 (large) egg yolks…I wonder if cooking at 160 might help?
Reading the recipe makes me want to try it.
My eggs yolks scrambled tasted ok but didn’t look so great. Made pavlova with egg whites
I just have to tell you my entire family LOVES this broccoli and cauliflower recipe. I have printed the cheats cheese sauce and I use it on almost everything now. Thank you, Libby, for another winner dinner.