These air fryer cauliflower tots are an easy low carb version of a family favorite! These cauliflower tots are easy to make with just 5 ingredients + spices and are ready in about 20 minutes! Serve with ranch or ketchup for dipping.
It may not seem like it based on a lot of the recipes we share here, but we actually eat pretty low carb in our house. Of course, we all have our days and we have a couple kids in the house who love to eat things like our air fryer potato wedges or our famous air fryer cookies!
But it’s all about balance, so you’ll also find us serving up this buffalo cauliflower for a snack or making these cauliflower tots to serve with dinner! Cauliflower is magic, after all.
We love that these have a similar flavor to tater tots. They’re perfect for dipping in ranch or ketchup or cheese dip or fry sauce or BBQ sauce or honey mustard. <— We love dips in this house!
Plus, turning a veggie into something familiar (like a tater tot) is an easy way for me to get kids to try new things. It doesn’t always work, but it’s been my go to method of turning my kids into more adventurous eaters and I’m pretty proud of where they’re at!
Table of Contents
Ingredient Notes:
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Cauliflower – We’re starting with a bag of frozen riced cauliflower. It’s simple to find, simple to cook, and simple to work with. A win all the way around.
If you want to start with a head of fresh cauliflower, you’ll need to process it into rice and then steam it until soft.
Cheese – Both parmesan and cheddar are used in this recipe. Freshly shredded will blend better and be more “cheesy”, but I usually cheat a little with pre-shredded cheeses.
Binder– We’re using coconut flour to hold things together. It’s a low carb flour and a little goes a long way. Your cauliflower tots will NOT taste like coconut. I actually hate coconut but bake with coconut flour often. You’ll also need an egg.
Seasonings- We’ll stir in garlic powder, onion powder, and a bit of salt for flavor. Feel free to get creative with your seasoning.
How to Make Cauliflower Tots in an Air Fryer:
- Combine– Cook the rice according to the package directions and drain any remaining liquid from the rice. Add your steamed rice, cheese, egg, flour, and seasonings all to a mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
- Shape – Use a small cookie scoop to scoop portions of the mixture and shape them into tots with your hands.
- Air Fry– Spritz your air fryer basket with oil spray and arrange your tots in the basket without letting them touch. Spritz your tots with oil spray and cook for 8 minutes at 400 degrees F. Flip them, spritz with oil again and cook for 5 more minutes.
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FAQ:
You can taste the cauliflower in there, but they’re also seasoned nicely, have a texture similar to tater tots, and are cheesy. Even if cauliflower isn’t your favorite, you may still enjoy these tots. If you really despise cauliflower, this may not be for you.
Yes, reheat any leftover tots in the air fryer for 4-5 minutes at 350 degrees.
Seasoning Ideas:
BBQ Cauliflower Tots: Add BBQ dry rub to the mix before shaping and cooking. Serve with BBQ sauce!
Taco Cauliflower Tots: Add taco seasoning to the mix before shaping and cooking. Serve with cheese dip or make ‘totchos’ – cauliflower tot nachos!
Buffalo Cauliflower Tots: Toss the tots in buffalo sauce after cooking and serve with ranch or blue cheese.
Ranch Cauliflower Tots: Skip the seasoning blend we call for in the recipe and mix in a couple teaspoons of ranch seasoning mix.
Karly’s Tips!
Load your cauliflower tots up! You can pile on cooked and crumbled bacon, more shredded cheese, sour cream, ranch, chives, taco meat, or any other thing you can think of to make loaded tots!
Adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes. These are very forgiving and easy to customize.
Do not swap the coconut flour for another type of flour. Coconut flour is very unique and soaks up moisture like a sponge, more than other flours do. You’d need to make other adjustments if using a different flour.
More Air Fryer Side Dish Recipes:
Air Fryer Cauliflower Tots
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10 ounces frozen steam-in-bag riced cauliflower
- ¾ cup shredded Parmesan
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Steam the cauliflower rice according to package directions. Drain any liquid from the cauliflower and place the cauliflower in a mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir well to combine.
- Use a small cookie scoop to scoop out portions of the mixture and then shape with your hands into tots.
- Grease your air fryer basket with oil spray and arrange tots in a single layer with space between each for air to flow. You may need to work in batches depending on the size of your air fryer.
- Spritz tots with oil spray.
- Air fry at 400 degrees for 8 minutes, flip, spray with non-stick spray, and cook for 5 more minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
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