Keto Mac and Cheese Recipe {Video}

April 2, 2018 Rebecca Baron 39 Comments

This is the best ever Keto mac and cheese recipe. Mac and cheese is comfort food for a lot of people and now you can have it even on a Keto diet. I love how creamy and rich this is. It sure doesn't taste like healthy food!

This is my new favorite side dish. Well, maybe except spicy butternut squash soup. I had that for dinner the other day and I LOVED it. So easy and turns out great every time. Guess I'll have to post that recipe soon . . .

One of the things that's great about this recipe is that it gets me to eat more veggies. I mean, I love veggies and I'm eating way more now than I used to, but I really get tired of the same vegetables over and over. When I eat this stuff, I find myself eating tons of cauliflower, which is really good. Plus, this helps me not to miss pasta so much.

Main Ingredients

A whole head of cauliflower - this is the main body of your dish. It's surprising how much of it you can eat when it's soft, creamy and smothered in a delicious cream sauce.
Butter or bacon fat - really any sort of "fat" will do but one with the most flavor is the best, especially since you don't use that much.
Heavy cream - I really do recommend using heavy cream and not using half and half or milk, etc. It's not only better carb-wise but it's so nice and rice and creamy. But the real advantage as far as cooking with it is it doesn't curdle. It's so much easier to work with.
Cheddar cheese - I like to use a good quality medium. It seems to have a balance of enough flavor but being still easy to work with. Sharp has more flavor but it's really hard to work with. It doesn't melt properly, falls apart, costs more, is harder to find, etc.

Tips and tricks

If you like your cauliflower to be more firm, start the cream sauce first and let it get warmed up and going for a few minutes before you add the cauliflower.

If you want this thicker without having to cook it down for so long and make the cauliflower super soft, you can cook the sauce and the cauliflower separate. Start the cauliflower when the sauce is almost done. I like to cook my cauliflower in the Instant Pot * for 3-10 minutes on steam, depending on how soft I want it. Then - this is important - drain the cauliflower really, really well before you add it to the cheese sauce. Otherwise, it will water down the sauce and make the cauliflower and the sauce taste watery.
If your pan isn't ovenproof, you can just put a lid on it and let the cheese melt on the stovetop with the heat turned off.
You could totally add bacon to this, which would make it even more Keto and would add a lot of flavors. After all, bacon is a cornerstone meat on the Keto diet!
For extra flavor, use sharp cheddar and add some cayenne pepper. Or try jalapeños, sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning or Parmesan cheese.
You could also add a few tablespoons of cream cheese to make it a bit richer and thicker.
Instead of cauliflower, you could use spaghetti squash or zoodles *.

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do! I would love to hear if you try this and like it. Please comment below and let me know how it turned it.

Recipe