This cauliflower stuffing is packed with goodies like crispy browned sausage, caramelized onions, toasty pecans and savory herbs. It’s low carb, Whole30 compliant and keto friendly. It’s sure to be a total showstopper at your holiday table, even for the non-paleo crowd!
Stuffing is just the absolute best side dish, period. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it every time I post a new stuffing recipe!
The flavors are the best, it’s like the ultimate holiday “hash” that I could eat every day and be totally happy. And this one? It uses roasted cauliflower as a base, making it low carb and Whole30 compliant, but still every bit as delicious as you would expect a stuffing to be!
To keep it low carb and keto, I went savory all the way. You won’t find any apples or cranberries in this one – but you do get some toasty pecans which makes up for a little bit of sweetness!
No worries – if apples and cranberries need to be in your stuffing, I have a Whole30 compliant butternut stuffing that you’ll love!
What You Need to Make Cauliflower Stuffing
The cauliflower stuffing is super simple and uses lots of fresh veggies and fresh herbs. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Cauliflower
- Avocado oil, or olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper
- Ghee
- Italian sausage
- Onion
- Celery
- Garlic
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme
- Parsley
- Pecans
How to Make Cauliflower Stuffing
This recipe is really simple to throw together! The cauliflower roasts in the oven while you cook everything else in a skillet on the stovetop.
After you put the cauliflower in the oven, you’ll brown the sausage in a large skillet, and set it aside on a plate. Then you’ll cook the onions, celery, garlic, fresh herbs and pecans to blend the flavors.
Once that mixture is toasty, you’ll add in the cooked sausage and roasted cauliflower and toss everything together. That’s it! Perfect for any crowd, great to bring to a holiday party and reheats really well, too.
Where Can I Find Whole30 Compliant Sausage?
Whole30 compliant sausage (sausage made without any added sugar) is easier to find now than it was in the past. Many grocery stores make their own sausage on site that’s free of additives, so make sure to ask them first!
If you can’t find any at your local store, check out US Wellness Meats and Jones Dairy Farm. They both make delicious sugar-free sausage that’s perfect to use in recipes like this cauliflower stuffing, and so many others.
I hope you’re ready for a ridiculously delicious, low carb stuffing that’s going to make you want to abandon the bread variety for good! Grab your cauliflower and preheat the oven because it’s time to start – let’s go!
Cauliflower Stuffing with Sausage {Paleo, Keto, Whole30}
Keto Cauliflower Stuffing with Sausage {Paleo, Whole30}
Ingredients
- 1 large head cauliflower cut into small florets
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil or olive oil
- Sea salt and black pepper
- 1 Tbsp ghee and more as needed
- 1 lb bulk Italian sausage sugar free for Whole30, homemade or store bought
- 1 medium yellow onion cut in half and sliced thin
- 4 stalks celery chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary minced
- 2 tsp fresh sage minced
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves removed from stems
- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley minced, plus more for garnish if desired
- 1/2 cup pecans chopped
- Sea salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425° F and lightly grease a large metal baking sheet. Place cauliflower florets on the baking sheet and drizzle evenly with the avocado oil, then sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium/med-hi heat and add the ghee. Crumble the sausage into the skillet and cook, breaking up lumps with a spoon, until nicely browned all over - about 5-7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate, then turn the heat down to med-low.
- Add the onions to the skillet, sprinkle with sea salt and stir to coat with cooking fat. Cook over med-low/med heat, stirring occasionally for 5-10 minutes to lightly caramelize, adjusting the heat if necessary. Raise the heat to medium and add more ghee if necessary, then add the celery and cook about a minute to soften, then add the garlic and continue to cook about a minute, stirring to avoid burning.
- Add the fresh herbs and pecans to the mixture and cook, stirring, another minute to toast the pecans. Add the sausage back in, then the roasted cauliflower and toss together to heat through. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste (you may not need to at all) and remove from heat.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately, or transfer the mixture to a casserole dish so you can reheat it later on, right before serving. To reheat, place the casserole dish in a 400° F oven, covered with aluminum foil until heated through. Enjoy!
Nutrition
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This looks great Michele! Question, how do you think using frozen cauliflower florets would work in this recipe or for making rice? I saw a huge bag of frozen florets at Walmart the other week. Buying it already riced frozen is pricey. Especially, when you eat a lot of it. But, the thought of cutting up a head and ricing it is daunting to me. Again, especially when I eat so much of it. Thought that the frozen might be a good economical short-cut. Thank you!
Awesome recipe!
I modified this quite a bit to suit my tastes in stuffing and the items I had on hand. This seems like a very versatile recipe, it came out great and I will definitely make it again, with just a couple minor changes. Pan roasting the heartier vegetables provides a nice boost in body and flavor. To me, this is a definitely better way to make sausage stuffing than either bread or the apple/pear approach (regardless of whether or not you worry about carbs). It seems perfect as a heftier side dish that won’t overwhelm even a lighter main course.
The specifics of how I modified the recipe:
1. Used half the sausage and twice the onion (to suit my taste + matched what I had on hand)
2. Substituted carrot for half the cauliflower (not a good keto choice, but had lots of unused carrots in the fridge and less cauliflower on hand than normal)
3. Added some cumin with the salt & pepper for pan roasting
4. Used the last bit of bacon drippings I had on hand in place of the ghee
5. Skipped the pecans, added 2-3 cups of sliced Crimini mushrooms instead (to suit our household taste in stuffing)
The household reviews ranged from “quite good”, to “the best thing I’ve had in a long time”. The flavors were strong and well-balanced, a great mix of slightly sweet, aromatic, herby, and meaty. Perfectly moist but not at all mushy. The only thing I’d change is to make it slightly less greasy next time, so I’ll try to stick to just the sausage drippings. I’ll also try increasing the roasted vegetables by about half, as those were really good (I wanted more!).
Note: Our household doesn’t follow paleo, keto, or Whole30 strictly, so be careful about using my suggestions if you’re trying to stick to those.
. Want to make it ahead to take to Thanksgiving dinner.
Could you make this recipe without meat? My sister is vegetarian and I am struggling to find delicious paleo stuffing recipes without meat!
Just made a sample batch prior to Thanksgiving. Taste is delicious! My recommendations is to cut the onion in 4ths for shorter strands and to make sure the florets are smaller bite size pieces. Excited to serve to my family! Thanks!
Delicious recipe… I made a test batch and my family loved it. I’m taking the cauliflower stuffing with sausage to my family’s house for Thanksgiving.
My family loved it so much that I decided to make another batch for us to have the day after thanksgiving. My husband said “it was very very good, can I have more to try?” Our family likes spicy so I decided to make it with 1/2 mild and 1/2 spicy italian sausage. This recipe came out very tasty.
I forgot to rate the recipe. I give it ten stars!!!!!!
Nice, I liked this recipe!
We made this on thanksgiving. It was delicious. I will be making is a lot!