This slow cooker cauliflower recipe is rich, creamy, and oh-so-cheesy. With a sprinkle of crispy chopped bacon, it’s the ultimate keto side dish!
Okay, all of you cauliflower naysayers! I dare you NOT to fall in love with this easy Slow Cooker Cauliflower. You won’t believe how creamy and flavorful it is. Warning, you may like it so much, you will want to make it every day.
I kid you not. I created this Cauliflower Mac and Cheese in 2017 and it has been one of my most popular keto side dish recipes ever since. Sixty 5-star reviews can’t be wrong!
Just like cauliflower risotto and cauliflower potato salad, this recipe proves to the world how versatile and delicious this low carb vegetable can be.
Why this recipe is so awesome
The best slow cooker recipes are the ones where you just dump the ingredients in and walk away. I like to call them “dump and run” recipes. And that’s exactly how you make this cheesy slow cooker cauliflower. You do need to add in the grated cheese toward the end, but that’s it. There’s so little work involved and you end up with a super creamy, super flavorful low carb side dish.
It goes perfectly with all of your favorite mains like Air Fryer Pork Chops and Spinach Stuffed Chicken. And I can tell you from experience that the leftovers make a great breakfast, too.
And with only 4.7g net carbs per serving, you can dig in with gusto!
Ingredients you need
- Cauliflower florets: You can cut the florets from a head of cauliflower or get them pre-cut. I don’t suggest using frozen cauliflower as they will become mushy.
- Cream cheese: Cream cheese helps make the cheese sauce rich and thick.
- Whipping cream: You need a little liquid to help the cauliflower cook and become tender.
- Butter: Butter adds additional fat and flavor.
- Pepper Jack cheese: If you aren’t a fan of Pepper Jack, you can use Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese.
- Bacon: Because everything tastes better with bacon! You will need to have it already cooked up nice and crispy.
- Salt and pepper
Reader Reviews
“I made this and it is superb!!! Sometimes cauliflower recipes are not easy to pull off and make ‘tasty’”’. Carolyn has done it with this recipe! My daughter and grands (5,6,7yrs) LOVE IT!!! This is now added to MY go to side dish library. Thank you Carolyn for all you do! Makes living a healthy, keto friendly, lifestyle so much easier and FUN.” — Sandra
“This is perhaps our favorite side dish recipe. As a matter of fact, I’ve been known to have some of the leftovers for breakfast the next day! This is my idea of a “Breakfast of Champions”! Your talent, imagination and creativity in the kitchen never fails to amaze.” — Diane
“Girrrrrllll! I love this recipe!!! This recipe is my replacement for mac & cheese. Love that it is a crock pot meal. My family members loved it. I am looking forward to making this dish for Thanksgiving as a side side whichThank you for sharing and demonstrating one of many of your delicious recipes.” — Pamela
Step by Step Directions
1. Dump in the ingredients: Add the cauliflower, cream cheese, whipping cream, butter, salt, and pepper into a greased slow cooker. Cook on low for 3 hours.
2. Add the cheese: Add the Pepper Jack and stir to combine. Continue to cook another 30 minutes to an hour, until cauliflower is fork tender.
3. Top with bacon: Add the bacon crumbles and serve.
Tips for Success
Choose a cheese that melts well. I prefer grating my own, as it has no fillers and will melt more smoothly. But you can use pre-shredded if that’s all you have.
In a rush? You can also cook this on high for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
I do not recommend cooking this in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker. The pressure tends to force too much liquid out of the vegetables, making the sauce too soupy and thin.
Frequently Asked Questions
For those of us following a low-carb diet, cauliflower is an excellent vegetable choice. It has a mild flavor so it takes on the flavors of the other ingredients. It is also low in carbohydrates and can be steamed, roasted, boiled, fried and grilled.
This easy keto “Mac and Cheese” is best the first day you make it, but the leftovers are good for several days. Keep leftovers in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
This keto slow cooker pepper jack cauliflower recipe has 6.3g of carbs and 1.6g of fiber per serving. That comes to 4.7g net carbs per slice.
More delicious slow cooker recipes
Slow Cooker Pepper Jack Cauliflower
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound cauliflower cut into 1 inch florets
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 4 ounces Pepper Jack cheese shredded
- 6 slices bacon cooked crisp and crumbled
Instructions
- Grease the inside of a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker.
- Add the cauliflower, cream cheese, whipping cream, butter, salt, and pepper. Cook on low for 3 hours.
- Add the Pepper Jack and stir to combine. Continue to cook another 30 minutes to an hour, until cauliflower is fork tender.
- Add bacon crumbles and serve.
Notes
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Yum! I am eating this for the first time and it is great. I wanted it to go a little faster so I microwaved the cauliflower for 5 minutes before putting it in the crockpot and it cut the time down nicely. Thanks for the recipe – it is such a great idea!
Such a great recipe! I usually make this twice a week for a snack.
This is so good! Really easy to make and means my kids actually eat their vegetables!
Cauliflower, cheese, bacon, cream, salt, pepper, nothing in there I don’t like! So amazing and easy to make!
My husband barely tolerates cauliflower, I on the other hand crave it!! So thought I would give this a try!! Well according to my hubby “It’s a keeper!!” I did end up putting a smidge of Veggie Broth* because I thought it needed a little more liquid. We both agreed it would also work good as a soup too!!
* Better than Bouillon veggie
Excellent!
love the crock pot pepper jack califlower
I made this today to be my Thanksgiving side dish with a cornish hen, and I couldn’t stop eating it even as I was putting the leftovers in a glass dish to store. This was so good that I didn’t realize I left the bacon on a side counter and forgot to add it in! I ate the bacon later- I’m not crazy!- but it was THAT good. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Wow, so happy to hear that!
I’m not a big fan of cream cheese.
Is there anything that I can use to substitute the cream cheese?
I have to say, I never liked cauliflower and your recipes are turning me to a fan. I also like that many of your recipes are vegetarian friendly or can be easily converted to vegetarian. My husband is vegetarian, and it’s hard for me to find recipes that I personally like. Loving the blog.
I honestly don’t know what you’d replace the cream cheese with. Maybe a little heavy cream? But you wouldn’t want much or it would be soupy.
I love all of these recipes that ‘claim’ they’re keto friendly but then DONT show nutrional value per serving. It is so VERY helpful NOT knowing the nutrional value of the meal you are promoting.
And if you didn’t get the hint. There is sarcasm in that comment.
You can be as sarcastic as you like but you would actually be wrong. You didn’t click through to the full recipe which does, in fact, contain ALL the nutritional information.
I made this and we LOVED it! My husband, who is known to be extremely fond of bacon, even said that the bacon was unnecessary. It’s THAT good! I’m going to double it for an Easter side dish with our ham. Thanks for this amazing recipe.
Can I substitute the pepper jack cheese for Gouda or cheddar instead?
Sure!
Recipe looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it! I’d love if you could list ingredients and measurements within your blog for convenience though! It makes for an easy screenshot then grocery list lol. Plus it seems it’s answer a few of the questions people have asked for you.
Thank you for sharing your recipes!
This is one I was paid to create and so the whole recipe lives on the Sweet Life website. Should be pretty easy to take a screen shot of that.
Can I use riced cauliflower for this??
Probably but you’d need to cook it a LOT less.
Looks amazing! Do you drain the cauliflower after the first 3 hours? Is it watery?
No, I don’t drain it.
Do you have any cooking suggestions to change this from slow cooker to instant pot? It looks delicious but im too impatient qnd unprepared for slow cooking more often than not haha.
Check out some IP cauliflower recipes and then use my additions. I am not really sure of the timing of it. Wish I could help more!
I see that the recipe calls for whipping cream, but did not see you use it in the video. Is this optional? Looking forward to making this tonight.
Works either way. I honestly think I just forgot in the video!
Yum! Do you have any instructions for making this in the Instant Pot pressure cooker?
Hi Carolyn! I was thinking about adding chicken to this recipe to make it a meal in and of itself. We love it as a side! I was thinking that if I added some cubed chicken to the cooker before all the rest it might come out about the same if I drained any extra moisture before adding the cauliflower. What do you think?
I think it would be great.
I’m using my instant as a slow cooker today and it doesn’t have a high or low setting. I currently have had the cauliflower in for a 1.5 hours and it’s already tender. Should I put the cheese in now?
YES!
Carolyn – I work outside the home, so prepping this for a 3 hour leadtime is problematic. Wondered if you had any experience with doing it in the Instapot?
Love love love your recipes. I was gifted an EKK cookbook for Christmas!
One reader did it and it was total mush. Tasty mush, but mush nonetheless.
I’ve been known to set my lamp timer and plug my crockpot into that before leaving for work. If everything I put in is very cold from the ‘fridge, I figure it is all good for an hour or two before it starts cooking.