Broccoli cheese casserole is one of those side dishes that gets gobbled up every time. It’s so creamy, cheesy, and full of flavor. Even your picky eaters will devour this broccoli.
Would you believe that my parents never made me eat broccoli as a kid?
I honestly don’t think I ever even tasted broccoli until I was a teenager.
Which, hey, I’m not complaining. Broccoli was scary and green looking and I was super picky. My parents picked their battles and broccoli was not one of them.
But now? I LOVE broccoli. It’s probably my favorite veggie and I often eat it steamed with just a sprinkling of salt. No butter, no cheese, just good ol’ broccoli.
Sometimes, though, you’ve got to get a little fancy with your vegetables, whether that’s for Thanksgiving dinner or just a weeknight and a craving hits, and that’s where this easy broccoli cheese casserole comes into play.
Y’all are going to love the decadent cheese sauce that coast the tender broccoli in this low carb broccoli casserole recipe is!
🍗 Variations:
Make it a Meal – Add cooked, shredded chicken or sliced and seared smoked sausage right into this dish to make it a meal.
Add Veggies – Swap half of the broccoli for cauliflower and proceed as directed!
Get Cheesy – Swap the cheddar for a different cheese of your choice, such as gruyere, colby jack, or mozzarella!
Crunchy Topping – Traditional broccoli casserole often has Ritz crackers or other cracker crumbs over the top. Instead, try crumbling up some pork rinds and sprinkle them over the top to add a little crunch!
Broccoli Cheese Casserole
Ingredients
- 20 ounces fresh broccoli florets
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup freshly shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add the broccoli to a large microwave safe bowl along with 2 tablespoons of water. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave for 2 minutes. Let sit, covered, for 2 minutes.
- Add the cream cheese, mayonnaise, cheddar, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to a small bowl and mix well to combine.
- Stir the cream cheese mixture into the steamed broccoli until well combined.
- Transfer broccoli to an 8×8 baking dish and sprinkle the Parmesan over the top.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
👩🍳 Ingredient Notes:
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Fresh Broccoli – You’ll note that I’m a fan of the fresh broccoli over the frozen! It just tastes better, but I do understand the convenience of the frozen kind. If that’s what you’ve got, it should work. I’ve just never made it myself in this recipe.
Cheese – This broccoli and cheese casserole is loaded up with rich cream cheese, freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese, and some grated Parmesan cheese! That’s going to add tons of creamy, decadent cheesy flavor to this casserole.
Mayo – It’s going to add even more creamy flavor to this keto casserole.
Seasoning – You don’t need many seasonings for this casserole. The rich, cheesy flavors with the broccoli pretty much do most of the work but we do like to mix in some garlic powder, salt, and ground black pepper!
Broccoli and cheese is a classic recipe that just about everyone can enjoy, including the kids!
It’s an easy casserole recipe that you can put together in no time.
With all that rich, creamy cheese nobody will even notice that this is a keto version of broccoli casserole.
How To Make Broccoli Casserole:
Broccoli – We’re starting with fresh broccoli for this recipe, because I personally think it has the best taste and texture. I do usually buy pre-cut broccoli florets in the produce section, but a head of broccoli works just as well. Chop the broccoli into small florets.
Steam – You’ll start out by steaming the broccoli lightly, either in a stove top steamer or in the microwave. For this recipe, I nearly always opt for the microwave, just because it’s easy. Pop your broccoli into a large bowl with two tablespoons of water, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and microwave for 2 minutes.
Cheese – You’ll mix together cream cheese, grated cheddar, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.
Mix – Scoop that mixture right on top of your hot and steamy broccoli and start stirring. The mixture should melt right into the broccoli pretty quickly as you stir.
Bake – Transfer this to a baking dish and sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese. Bake it up and you’ll have this decadent broccoli and cheese casserole that the whole family will love! This easy broccoli casserole is ready to go in just about 20 minutes. Serve alongside our stuffed chicken breast along with our keto coleslaw.
If you love this keto broccoli casserole recipe, be sure to try my broccoli salad or cauliflower potato salad!
❔ FAQs:
You can keep this low carb casserole stored in the fridge for about 3 to 4 days in an airtight or well sealed container.
This casserole should freeze well for up to few months. Keep it in a freezer safe container or wrapped in some foil and plastic.
I’ve never tried it in this recipe and would definitely recommend using fresh broccoli, but I think it would work fine with frozen.
Keto Broccoli Casserole for a Crowd:
This recipe is perfect for a family dinner and the leftovers will reheat well the next day.
If you’re serving a crowd or want to make this for a larger gathering, we recommend doubling the recipe!
Double all of the ingredients and bake for the same length of time in a 9×13 baking dish.
🥘 More Keto Casserole Recipes:
- Philly Cheesesteak Casserole
- Meatball Casserole
- Cheeseburger Casserole
- Spinach Casserole
- Keto Taco Casserole
- Big Mac Casserole
- Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Mrsjonesjr says
I halved the recipe and added 1/4 c. of additional cheese mixture, a gouda pimento cheese I found at Sam’s Club. My dish was 6×10 and BARELY fit the broccoli, which I heated in a glass bowl in the microwave for 2 minutes at a time. I bet your 8×8 is deeper! Mine is just barely 2″ but my mom has one that’s deeper, I always thought of that as a casserole dish. Mine will be 3 servings, and the carb count of mine will be 4 g./serving. I may call it 5 because I have multiple packages of pre-shredded cheese claiming “less than 1 g.” I’m baking for 12 minutes and then tossing it a bit to make sure it’s soft enough since I don’t think I properly pre-steamed. It’ll get cooked somehow!
Lauren says
Can you use Shredded Mozzarella instead of cheddar ?
Karly Campbell says
That should work just fine.
Sandra says
Maybe I didn’t add enough broccoli, but this was TOO cheesy, but my kids gobbled it up. So, win?!?
Karly Campbell says
Too cheesy?? Haha – it is extra cheesy and you could definitely add more broccoli next time if that’s not your thing. 🙂
Nona Salon5150 says
Very excited to try your recipes. I’m lactose intolerant, I can substitute cheese no problem but what cream cheese should I use?
Karly Campbell says
I’m not sure of a sub, but I do think there is a lactose free cream cheese on the market if you could find that. 🙂
Mindy says
All 32 oz of broccoli will fit in an 8×8 Pan? Just staring at my 8×8 & it seems small
Karly Campbell says
The broccoli gets cooked a bit before going in the pan and it shrinks up. It should fit just fine. 🙂
Jen H says
I made this with a 32 oz bag of brocooli and I’m pretty sure you used a regular 16 oz bag for this recipe. Even after steaming, there was no way 32 oz of broccoli was going to fit in my 8×8 pan. It barely all fit in a 9×13. And, the cheesy part wasn’t nearly enough. There was LOTS of bare broccoli. I doubled that part of the recipe after I tried baking it as-is, and it’s still not as cheesy as we were actually wanting (for keto). A 32 oz bag of broccoli is the really big size at Costco or Sam’s Club; the regular size at grocery stores is 16 oz. You may want to double check this and revise the recipe as needed.
Karly Campbell says
Hi Jen!
Well, you’re right…I’m so sorry! I actually used 2 packages of 10 ounces broccoli florets. I thought the packages were 16 ounces each and clearly I was wrong.
So sorry you had issues with the recipe. Really appreciate you letting me know!
Sarah says
I’ve been search for a cheesy and delicious low carb broccoli side dish and I found it! Easy to make and so good! Thank you for the great recipe.
BusyMomBusyLife says
Sorry, forgot to leave my rating and it won’t let me leave it without an additional comment.
BusyMomBusyLife says
This was amazing. I served this at a dinner party. Two of the guests hate broccoli and they both loved it! Some people liked it better than the main dish. I made extra cheese topping I know some people think there is too much sauce; but my group voted eight in favor of the additional sauce and one against it. I also did not mix the cheese topping in; but rather placed it on top – it did not spread during cooking; but rather stayed put (that was a surprise); so if you wanted less you just had to scrape it off. This gave it a rather unique flavor – a nice sharp flavor followed by the broccoli flavor. Really nice.
Karly Campbell says
I love the idea of spreading the mixture on top of the broccoli. Glad to hear it was a hit with your dinner guests!
Amanda says
I followed the recipe exactly and when I took it out of the oven it smelled sour. My family all tried it and it was not good. It tasted like the cream cheese went sour when it was put in the oven to cook. I’m not sure what went wrong because I used all fresh ingredients.
Karly Campbell says
Hi Amanda! Sorry this didn’t work out for you – the recipe has received numerous positive reviews, with a glowing review coming in just hours after this one. I have to assume that something was off with one of your dairy products. There was nothing in the recipe that could have turned them bad so I would guess they’d expired or you’d gotten a bad batch.
Pat says
Is it possible that Amanda used Miracle Whip instead of Mayonnaise?
Stephanie says
My husband and son, and I, loved this recipe! I happened to be making jalapeno popper stuffed chicken the same night and had two extra chicken breasts. SO….I stuffed the two chicken breasts with this mix and it turned out amazing! Great recipe, and especially for people who don’t like broccoli very much but still want to try to eat it.
Karly Campbell says
Oh, stuffing this inside chicken was brilliant! You might just see that pop up on the blog soon. haha! 🙂
Lisa says
This was yummy … didn’t miss the rice at all. Low carb and delish
Jacquie says
First, this casserole is delicious! I’m curios where you figured the carb count from because when I put the ingredients in carb manager I get 8g of net carbs…just trying to justify eating this delicious dish
Karly Campbell says
Hi Jacquie! I use My Fitness Pal to calculate nutrition. MFP is always super accurate but it’s so well known and popular that I stick with that. You can use whichever calculation you feel most comfortable with. Sorry for the confusion!
Karly Campbell says
Whoops, typo – that should have said MFP **isn’t** always super accurate… 🙂
Laura says
What temp do you bake it at?
Karly Campbell says
As stated in the recipe, this bakes at 350. 🙂
Tiffany says
My husband was so excited for this one. Early fathers day dinner tonight, it was a side for our grilled filet mignon with mushrooms. He absolutely loved it. Thank you!!
Karly Campbell says
Yay! Glad it was a hit!
Charlise says
Love this, what is the measurement for on serving size. Is it one cup or 1/2 a cup.
Karly Campbell says
The nutrition information is based on 1/6th of the recipe. I didn’t measure the volume of each serving.
Eric says
I added it in my carb counter app it says 66.2 grams of net carbs, which is basically 11g net carbs per serving (6) you said 3 net carbs. We’re not even in the same ballpark. Help!!
Karly Campbell says
Hi Eric! The recipes are pulled into a database and calculated automatically on my end. The results aren’t guaranteed to be accurate because they will change based on what exact products you use and a lot of different nutrition calculators use different values.
Stef says
How many cups is in a serving
Karly Campbell says
The recipe serves 6. I didn’t calculate the volume of each serving.
William says
To me it’s actually a goopy concoction with way too much cheese. I’d put in half the amount of cheese and skip the mayonnaise altogether, and add some kind of spice or herb to give it some flavor. I was disappointed, obviously.
Karly Campbell says
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one.
Roberta says
William try adding curry and substitute ricotta for mayonnaise.
Kathy says
I’m loving all the low/no carb recipes. thanks
Karly Campbell says
Thanks, Kathy!
Vickie says
Believe it or not, I don’t own a microwave and don’t really want one. I also don’t have a steamer basket because I don’t prefer veggies cooked this way either. I was thinking I could blanch the broccoli? Would I need to bake a tad longer? I’m just trying to get the texture you have with the finished product and hoping the blanching process would put it close to your microwave cooking process. Any suggestions?
Karly Campbell says
I really don’t ever boil broccoli, but I would guess that boiling for 2 minutes would probably get the right texture. You want it hot so it melts the cream cheese mixture when you combine them. You can just bake as long as you like to get the texture you prefer – the longer you bake, the softer it will get.
William says
I don’t have a microwave either, they take up too much room in the kitchen and I only used it to melt butter so I got rid of it years ago. That said, I do steam rather than boil all my veggies since I believe boiling leaves most of the nutrients in the water that is tossed.
Vickie says
Blanching is not the same as boiling. You add the broccoli to boiling water but it only stays in the water a matter of seconds. It sets the color to a bright green but leaves the veggie still more on the crisp side than cooked side. Once removed from the boiling water you immediately plunge it into ice water to stop the cooking process. It can be served as “raw” on veggie trays or used in stir fries or what ever you wish but because it is still more on the crisp side vs. cooked, I just wanted to get a feel if that is the texture the microwaved broccoli is. This would give me more of an idea of how long it should be baked if using this technique. Guess I will give it a try and find out!
I never steam veggies-don’t like the texture. Our preferred way is either roasted or grilled.
Aron says
This is kind of like the “Loaded Cauliflower Casserole” except you don’t add the bacon. If you precooked some bacon, chopped it and added it to this casserole it would just finish it (I think).
Karly Campbell says
Yes, bacon would be a good addition. 🙂 It’s already fairly salty with all that cheese though, so I’d omit the salt if you add bacon.
Aubrey says
What if I roast the broccoli in the oven instead?!?
Karly Campbell says
Should be delicious!
Leonora says
Just made this and it was amazing! Thank you
Dodi says
Can the casserole be made the day before? Food prepping for Christmas. 🙂
Karly Campbell says
I haven’t tried, but I think it’d probably be fine.