These Cauliflower Breadsticks are easy, cheesy, and made with healthy veggies instead of wheat. The perfect alternative to bread, they’re gluten free and absolutely delicious!
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I never expected to grow up and replace my beloved bread with cauliflower, but here I am.
10 year old me is horrified, but *ahem* 39 year old me is quite proud of myself.
These cauliflower breadsticks are never going to taste exactly like ‘real’ bread, but they hit the spot, make me feel good about what I’m eating and feeding my family, and they’re definitely still delicious!
Brushed with a bit of garlic butter and sprinkled with cheese, these are perfect for dipping in marinara and serving up alongside some low carb Italian favorites, like our keto lasagna, keto meatball casserole, or for serving with a bowl of our keto cabbage soup. These also go great with our Bruschetta Chicken!
This recipe is a riff on our keto cauliflower pizza crust, so you know it’s good!
Ingredient Notes:
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Cauliflower – Fresh (not frozen) riced cauliflower will work best in this recipe, but frozen does work so long as you really squeeze out excess moisture.
Coconut Flour – These DO NOT taste like coconut. We like coconut flour here because a little goes a long way and it really soaks up any excess moisture from the cauliflower. Coconut flour is like a sponge when it comes to liquid. We have not tested this with other flours.
Topping Ingredients – In my opinion every good breadstick recipe has a cheesy, garlic buttery topping! So that’s what we’ll use. Melted butter, minced garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, and shredded mozzarella cheese makes the perfect topping for our keto cauliflower breadsticks!
We use Thrive Market for a lot of our specialty ingredients and keto snacks or products. Their prices tend to be cheaper than the local stores and I love that you can so easily sort products by diet.
Like Costco, this is a membership site, but we find that it’s more than worth it based on the amount we save over the regular grocery store.
They have monthly or yearly plans. Check it out here.
We find it easiest to make cauliflower rice using a food processor. If you don’t have one, a sharp knife will do but you’ll want to keep chopping the cauliflower until it is in small rice like pieces.
We use and love this food processor. We use it often to make riced cauliflower as well as shred blocks of cheese in seconds. It’s a real workhorse in our kitchen and we highly recommend it.
How To Make Keto Cauliflower Breadsticks:
Cauliflower – First up you’ll need to prepare the cauliflower rice. To make your own fresh riced cauliflower you’ll need a food processor. Toss in the cauliflower florets and process until they are in small rice like pieces.
Steam – Now to soften up the cauliflower rice! You can steam it, or you can also microwave or boil it until it is very tender. When finished let it cool for 20 minutes and then you’ll need to get all the moisture out. Place the cauliflower in the center of a tea towel and squeeze all that liquid out. It should look dry when finished.
Dough – You can now transfer the riced cauliflower to a mixing bowl and add in all the other breadstick ingredients like the cheese, egg, coconut flour, and seasoning. Stir all that up until it is well combined into a dough that should mostly hold shape.
Topping – When the dough is ready you can start mixing together the garlic butter topping. Add the melted butter to a small bowl with the garlic, onion powder, and garlic powder and stir until combined. It’s a simple buttery topping that everyone can enjoy!
Assemble – On a parchment lined sheet pan press the dough out to form a 10×6 inch rectangle with about a 1/4 inch thickness. You can now start brushing all that buttery garlic sauce over the top of the keto breadstick dough!
Bake – Your keto cauliflower breadsticks are now ready to bake! Pop the sheet into the oven and bake for uncovered for about 20 minutes or until the dough is golden brown. You can now briefly remove it from the oven and top it with even more cheese! Put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes to melt the cheese, or place it under a broiler if to brown the cheese.
Serve – Let these keto cauliflower breadsticks cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving them hot! They’ll go perfectly with a nice side salad and some of my homemade Italian dressing.
It’s important to get all the moisture out of the steamed cauliflower rice! It’ll have a lot in it and we don’t want soggy breadsticks, so use a cloth or towel to squeeze all the water you possibly can out of the cooked cauliflower rice! It should look dry and like mashed cauliflower when done.
When you just really need something to serve alongside your Italian dinner or with a bowl of soup, these cauliflower breadsticks are something you can feel good about. They’re made with vegetables instead of wheat, but still have the vibe of a breadstick. That cheesy garlic butter topping doesn’t hurt, either.
FAQ’s:
These should last up to 4 days in the refrigerator if you keep them well sealed. You can reheat them in the oven for best results.
These are delicious to serve alongside our fathead pizza, with a hot bowl of soup, or next to your favorite pasta replacement.
More Low Carb Italian Recipes:
- Crustless Pizza in the Air Fryer
- Spaghetti Squash Alfredo
- Chaffle Pizza
- Peso Chicken Bake
- Zucchini Pizza Boats
- Fathead Pizza
Cauliflower Breadsticks
Ingredients
For the breadsticks:
- 1 medium head cauliflower
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 large eggs beaten
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
For topping:
- 3 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- Parsley or basil for garnish
Instructions
- Chop the cauliflower into florets and add to the bowl of a food processor. Process until you have small rice like pieces.
- Steam, boil, or microwave cauliflower until very tender, about 5 minutes.
- Let the cauliflower cool for 20 minutes and then dump into a clean tea towel. While cauliflower is cooling, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fold the towel up over the cauliflower and squeeze out any excess moisture. Keep squeezing until no liquid is left in the cauliflower. See notes.
- Transfer cauliflower to a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients for the crust. Stir well to combine.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and press the dough out to form a 10×6 inch rectangle about ¼ inch thick.
- Stir together the butter, garlic, onion powder, and garlic powder to make the topping. Brush it over the top of the breadsticks.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and top with the cheese and bake for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. Broil to brown the cheese on top, if preferred.
- Sprinkle with parsley and allow to cool 5 minutes.
- Slice into 8 breadsticks and serve.
Diana says
Can you use almond flour instead of coconut flour?
Karly Campbell says
We’ve only tested this with coconut flour. The two don’t work at the same ratios so you’d want to test it using more almond flour if you try it out.
Diana says
Thanks for the info. If I decide to try it, I will let you know how it turns out.
Karly Campbell says
Hope you enjoy!
Judy M Carroll says
Have you ever weighed the cauliflower after you cut it up to know exactly how much to use?
Karly Campbell says
No, I haven’t. If you have a bit larger or smaller head of cauliflower it’s not going to affect the recipe much. The key is getting that moisture drained out. 🙂
kjs says
it would be helpful to know how much riced cooked cauliflower we need in cups or grams. Medium is pretty subjective Could you also just saute riced cauliflower to cook & remove moisture as 1 step instead of 2?
Karly Campbell says
We didn’t measure it out by weight, just grabbed a head of cauliflower and went for it. 😉 The recipe is pretty forgiving so long as you get the moisture out of the cauliflower. I haven’t tested sauteeing it, but so long as it’s good and soft that would likely work. You’ll still want to squeeze out excess liquid.