Cauliflower Oatmeal (Oat-Free)
This Cauliflower Oatmeal recipe is a low-carb, oat-free and grain-free breakfast porridge that is perfect for paleo diets. Try this healthy recipe when you’re avoiding oats but want a cozy breakfast reminiscent of the real thing. This recipe is ready in less than 30 minutes.
You’ve probably seen all the funny memes about transforming cauliflower into random foods.
This Cauliflower Oatmeal falls into that category of foods or recipes you can make fun of. But, before you completely write it off, you may want to consider trying it!
If you can’t have oats because you’re on a grain-free or paleo diet, this cauliflower version is pretty darned close to the texture of regular oatmeal.
Topped with almond butter, berries, and cacao nibs, it has a chocolate flavor that helps mask the flavor of the cauliflower.
I’ve also included a modification using half oats and half cauliflower rice that may satisfy the most picky eaters in the household. See my list of the best veggies for picky eaters.
Cauliflower Oatmeal Benefits
- It’s 100% grain-free and perfect for paleo diets. If you’re confused about which diet to follow, see my article about the differences between clean eating, paleo, keto, vegan, and Whole 30 diets.
- This is a great way to increase your veggie intake. Cauliflower rice doesn’t have a strong flavor so it lends itself to a “pretend oatmeal” recipe.
- This is a high protein breakfast with almost 20 grams of protein and less than 17 net grams of carbs per serving (you can reduce the carbs further by using a sugar-free sweetener instead of maple syrup).
Key Ingredients
- Cauliflower rice makes the base of this cauliflower porridge. You can use homemade cauliflower rice, bagged cauliflower rice, or even frozen cauliflower rice. Shredded cauliflower has a natural rice-like consistency that helps this dish taste like traditional oatmeal.
- Eggs add structure and protein to the oatmeal.
- Almond milk adds moisture to cook the cauliflower. You can use whatever type of plant milk or even regular milk you like. Don’t use coconut milk as the dish will be too rich.
- Cocoa powder and cacao nibs help add a chocolate flavor. Feel free to leave them out if you don’t want it to be chocolate-flavored. Or, see my best substitutes for cocoa powder if you don’t have any on hand.
- Almond butter adds healthy fats and flavor.
- Collagen protein increases the protein content of this breakfast. Eating protein with breakfast is one of my tips for doing a sugar detox and healthy weight loss!
- Liquid sweetener such as maple syrup or Lakanto maple-flavored syrup adds sweetness.
I use and recommend Vital Proteins collagen peptides. If you want more ideas for clean protein powders, see my list of the best paleo protein powders.
Recipe Steps
Step One
The first step to make low carb oatmeal is to start with a medium head of cauliflower, broken into florets.
Give the florets a wash in the sink and then add them to the base of a food processor.
Step Two
After you’ve made your cauliflower rice, it’s time to gather up the rest of your ingredients.
Be sure to check the recipe card at the end of this post for exact measurements and cooking times.
Step Three
Place the almond milk and cauliflower rice in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Then, add the eggs and cook the oatmeal for about 8 minutes.
Step Four
The last step is to stir in the cocoa powder, liquid sweetener, collagen protein, and almond butter.
I also like to top the finished oatmeal with some strawberries for color and a little extra sweetness. You can use any type of fresh berries or other toppings including fresh fruit, chia seeds, chocolate chips, peanut butter (not strict paleo), or your favorite toppings.
Recipe Tips
- Store any leftovers in a tightly-sealed airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- If you aren’t on a strict low-carb diet, feel free to use up to 1/2 cup of rolled oats along with 1/2 cup of cauliflower rice to make this recipe most like a real oatmeal. The cooking instructions stay the same.
- If you are short on time, you can make the cauliflower rice up to 2 days ahead of time. Or, you can use bagged cauliflower rice or frozen cauliflower rice.
- You can use whatever type of milk you like in this recipe. See my list of the best no-sugar foods.
- Want more low-carb swap ideas? See my list of the Best Substitutes for Potatoes.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can! You’ll need to cook it longer to make sure it get cooked through. See my guide on how to freeze cauliflower.
This cauliflower-based oatmeal has very little flavor of cauliflower, mostly because it’s covered up by the flavors of the chocolate, maple-flavored syrup, strawberries, and almond butter.
That said, the texture is slightly crunchier than oatmeal made from oats. But, all in all, I think it is an excellent substitution, especially if you are on a grain-free diet.
If you aren’t on a strict grain-free or low-carb diet, you can add up to 1/2 cup rolled oats to 1/2 cup of cauliflower rice in this recipe. You might also like this Low Carb Hot Cereal recipe using a mix of seeds.
While a lot of people do skip breakfast, it’s not necessarily the healthiest habit for everyone. Read my article on the risks of intermittent fasting for women.
More Low-Carb Recipes You Might Like
- Ground Bison and Cauliflower Bowl
- Keto Trail Mix
- Air Fryer Soft Boiled Eggs
- Instant Pot Cauliflower Soup
- Air Fryer Buffalo Cauliflower
Or, see my entire index of low-carb clean eating recipes.
More Healthy Breakfast Ideas
I hope you make this recipe! If you do, please leave a comment and a starred review below.
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Chocolate Cauliflower Oatmeal (High Protein, Oat-Free)
This Cauliflower Oatmeal recipe is a low-carb, oat-free and grain-free breakfast porridge that is perfect for paleo diets. Try this healthy recipe when you’re avoiding oats but want a cozy breakfast reminiscent of the real thing. This recipe is ready in less than 30 minutes.
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or your favorite milk
- 3 cups cauliflower rice (about the amount that comes from a medium head of cauliflower)
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or Lakanto maple-flavored sweetener
- 2 scoops collagen protein powder
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, (optional, for topping)
- 2 tablespoons cacao nibs, (optional, for topping)
Instructions
- Place the almond milk and cauliflower rice in a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Stir in the eggs and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the cocoa powder, sweetener, collagen powder, and almond butter.
- Serve hot, with sliced strawberries and cacao nibs on top (optional).
Notes
- Store any leftovers in a tightly-sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- If you aren’t on a strict low-carb diet, feel free to use up to 1/2 cup of rolled oats along with 1/2 cup of cauliflower rice to make this recipe most like a real oatmeal. The cooking instructions stay the same.
- If you are short on time, you can make the cauliflower rice up to 2 days ahead of time. Or, you can use bagged cauliflower rice or frozen cauliflower rice.
- You can use whatever type of milk you like in this recipe.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Healthy
- Diet: Vegetarian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of recipe
- Calories: 258
- Sugar: 12.1 g
- Sodium: 235.2 mg
- Fat: 12.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 23.9 g
- Fiber: 6.9 g
- Protein: 19.1 g
- Cholesterol: 186 mg
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About the Author: Carrie Forrest has a master’s degree in public health with a specialty in nutrition and is studying to be a holistic nutritionist. She is a top wellness and food blogger with over 5 million annual visitors to her site. Carrie has an incredible story of recovery from chronic illness and is passionate about helping other women transform their health. Send her a message through her contact form.
Cauliflower never ceases to amaze me with its ability to transform into so much deliciousness! I can’t wait to try this. Thank you!
Thanks, Jennifer!!! I agree, cauliflower is pretty amazing. My other recent new thing is to freeze steamed cauliflower rice in individual baggies and put a big chunk into my green smoothies. Yum and totally undetectable! 🙂
Oh, that sounds like a great idea!! Easy meal prep that lets me get in more veggies is always welcome.
really?? it’s good??? I may just have to take your word on this one Carrie lol, I love cauliflower and chocolate but not sure I’m brave enough to attempt this one yet lol….. it does look good to the eye that’s for sure 🙂
Thanks, Debbie! I know, it’s one of my strangest recipes. When I was able to eat eggs, I really enjoyed this one!!! Probably my only complaint was that it didn’t fill me up as much as regular oats. That said, it tastes really good, I promise!!!
Brilliant! I can’t wait to try this!!
Thanks, Rande!!! I’d love to know how you like it. 🙂
HI Carrie,
This sounds and looks absolutely delicious and filled with health. I never thought of putting chocolate and cauliflower rice together and making a tasty, healthy breakfast or dessert. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays. Pinned & tweeted!
Thanks, Marla! I haven’t made this recipe in awhile, but I’m thinking about trying to sneak it past my husband again. 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
HAHAHAHAHA just reread my post that prompted your IR question and as in real estate location is everything, here context is everything.
In that post IR=Insulin Resistance
Sorry for the confusion
That makes much more sense, I was so confused. :0) That’s awesome that you’re doing so well with IF…I am also having much better results this time around, but mostly because I’m doing the butter/MCT/gelatin coffee thing in the morning and then two meals later in the day. I’ve already seen an improvement in my blood sugars, yay!!!
That is great! Numbers headed right direction is a great indicator you are doing something right.
I so agree and I’m working with a functional medicine doc to track everything. I even bought a home glucose/ketone meter, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I am sooooo curious to see my ketone levels…have you done any of that type of testing?
When figuring my way out of pre-diabetes I measured bg frequently. I have link to study if you want but bottom line is it seems that single best measure of diabetes and damage risk is the 1 hour postprandial (1 hour after you START eating) which is really a proxy for highest point your bg ever hits. I tested all around it and found that for me, 1 hour is pretty darn close.
Only tested ketones a few times w/ pee sticks when started Fast 5 and never showed any at all. Would be fun to do that during a longer fast but I may never fast again! Might do but certainly not looking for an excuse to; at 65 years old it just takes too damn long and too much work to regain the muscle mass lost.
Cool, thanks for the tip on testing BG, Geoffrey. I’m just starting to delve into this world of self-testing and appreciate hearing from you on that. I’ve been reading this book called Keto Clarity by Jimmy Moore and am learning about the whole ketosis thing. What fascinating pieces of machinery human bodies are…so much to learn and we are all definitely a bit different. Good stuff!
No more spots for direct reply to specific msg above but I just wanted to tag on to what you posted about saturated fat and protein both. From all I have read it seems that high fat from plants mostly non-coconut, seems pretty safe so far as cardiovascular risk is only an issue for me in that it is so calorie intensive. Dr Fuhrman seems to think fairly high intake of fat is fine so long as you are burning it as fuel and not storing it as excess and that matches how it feels in my body. Probably one of my biggest “problems” with it is that I really like to eat and I like to eat a lot, so if I am going to indulge that and feel satisfied, I need to keep the calorie density low enough that I can pack in some volume :()
Thanks for posting all of your thoughts, Geoffrey. I really appreciate your insights.
Yeah, totally, Geoffrey, I was initially drawn to Dr. Fuhrman’s approach because of the ability to eat very large amounts of food. However, I have noticed that with an increased amount of fat, even more than I ever ate while a nutritarian, I am feeling satiation like I have never experienced. To be honest, I feel like I’m doing a version of nutritarianism, except with the addition of butter and eggs. I am even experimenting with intermittent fasting again, but having a lot more success because I shifted my “feeding window” to later in the day. I really do appreciate your continued thoughtful input…thank you!!!
Funny how different bodies are from each other. I do feel more satiation w/ more fat but at least for now I get IR if I put on any weight and I have experimented. If I eat more than an ounce or two of nuts I start to pudge and get IR.
But the funny is how so many people seem to prefer eating lunch/dinner or at any rate, later in the day. I like that for social reasons but I go a bit nutso w/ hunger doing that and if I eat in the morning, right after I finish my work-out, and then 4 hours or so later, I am good to go until next day.
Geoffrey…IR?
IR=Intermittent Fasting
I have been using the Fast-5 approach for about 1 1/2 years now. At first it was torture and I pace the floor wringing my hands while obsessing about food every morning until my eating window opened at 1 pm. That went on for several months without relief (I am a stubborn dude!). Finally I got smart and switched to opening the window in the morning, right after my workout, about 8 a.m. and felt instantly much better and within a couple day was totally fine with 2 meals per day in 5 or 6 hours. Recently I have felt hungry for more food sooner so my window has reduced itself to 4 hours or so with no effort or thought on my part!
Hi!
We have never thought about mixing cauliflower and chocolate before… but this looks delicious!
Will be trying this recipe this weekend 🙂
Awesome, LMK what you think!!! 🙂
Wow, this looks really interesting. Thanks so much for sharing. I was wondering what purpose the eggs serve in the recipe. Do they serve as a binder? I would like to make this vegan, so I am wondering if it would still work if I just left the eggs out? Or do you have a suggestion for a possible replacement? Thanks! xo
No comment myself but wanted to see Carrie’s answer and could not figure another likely way to do that.
I would like to make it much lower fat myself, still use some sort of nut or seed milk but no eggs for me…different body, different needs 🙂
Thanks for the note, Geoffrey. I know you are very well educated and wise when it comes to nutrition, I’d love know your thoughts on this high-fat, low-carb stuff, if you have looked into it at all. Take care!!!
I have looked into it a lot actually, because I LOVE fat! Seriously, my favorite foods are things like peanut butter, almond butter, coconut milk. We won’t even go there on old favorites i.e. before pre-diabetes drove me to what I do now.
From all I have read and experienced (friends doing this and that), high fat, and I mean low carb type diet (no clear line of what high is) definitely increases risks significantly of cardovascular blockage. A lot though depends on the body you are putting it in. And of course all the research points to plant fats being far superior in benefits and reduce risk compared to animal sourced fats.
But as I mentioned above, much depends on the body. Some people need more fat than others. Some, like me, have their bodies, liver, etc sort of choke up on higher fat intake. And then there is therapy for specific conditions and diseases. For example if I developed cancer I would almost certainly do a full bore ketogenic diet for awhile until I got it knocked way back and did significant detox etc. But for the long haul I would be inclined toward Dr Fuhrman’s recommendations in terms of fat intake. Animal fat I would treat as a risky and rare indulgence rather than a regular food.
As an example, I have good friend w/ severe T2 diabetes as example. He has long used very low carb diet (Bernstein’s) to control his blood sugar levels to good effect. Also, he nearly died a couple years ago (and is now somewhat disabled as after effect) from a 2nd massive heart attack. The first one, maybe 10-12 years ago, was what put him on notice that he had advanced diabetes! So though he has been controlling sugar, other factors may add
up to do him in prematurely.
So then there is you w/ PCOS (that is your “issue” yes?). Complex and difficult but doable. My limited understanding is that prime drivers are too much insulin and too much testosterone. Very large insulin dumps are provoked by animal protein i.e. beef etc so there is that.
You have undoubtedly done a huge amount of your own research and are threading the needle with trying to balance out hormone levels so I don’t have much I can advise there though if it were me, I would likely be looking directly at body fat % i.e. body composition, finding BodPod or some such locally to semi-accurately monitor and get in the lower end of what Dr Fuhrman would call healthy. (Don’t remember the number off hand) I have found that for me, I put on visceral fat in quantity long before it shows anywhere else and 5 lbs or so over my ideal weight (at current body comp.) gives me significant insulin resistance. So for me, low calorie, very moderate fat intake to keep my body fat low, and lots of strength/hypertrophy work to maintain and build muscle mass so I don’t look like an Xray; been there and it ain’t pretty. I have found that I really need fairly strenuous exercise to get the body comp I need to stay healthy likely due to my funky diabetic tendency genetics (lot of it in close relatives).
There are other factors as well that drive body comp. and I am working on that end as well. Major player is systemic inflammation from whatever cause. That must be dealt with to get visceral fat down… I have a Naturopath friend who gained 25 lbs in just a few months months without changing diet or exercise at all just because he went through and deep deep detox from Qi Gong practice. As soon as the detox let up and the inflammation it was causing went away, the extra 25 lbs also just melted off in a couple months with again no changes in routine.
Hope that helps somehow, food for thought etc. At least this food is zero calorie and fairly non-toxic 😉
Just notice you mentioning protein in post after this one so did quick search to verify what I thought to be true and it seems to be:
Abstract
Adult-onset insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is associated with significant residual insulin secretion. The process leading to the ultimate destruction of B cells may be influenced, among other factors, by the quality and amount of ingested protein. Using a standardized food questionnaire, we matched 13 individuals with normal protein (NP; 0.74 +/- 0.08 g/kg.day) and high protein (HP; 1.87 +/- 0.26 g/kg.day) intake from a sample of 117 newly diagnosed IDDM patients according to sex, age, body mass index, and energy intake. Nondiabetic control subjects were also selected. Dietary habits did not change significantly over an observation period of 1 yr. Glucagon-stimulated C peptide was significantly higher in the NP compared to the HP group (0.71 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.50 +/- 0.04 nmol/L; P < 0.002). NP food was associated with higher overall insulin sensitivity in both patients and nondiabetic subjects. Hepatic glucose output was significantly increased in individuals with HP intake [HP IDDM, 14.8 +/- 0.6 vs. NP IDDM, 12.7 +/- 0.7 (P < 0.01); HP control, 12.2 +/- 0.5 vs. NP control, 10.9 +/- 0.5 (P < 0.01 mumol/kg.min). Insulin-mediated suppression of hepatic glucose production was impaired in diabetic patients with high protein intake, but not in patients with normal protein diet. Gluconeogenesis estimated from 13C enrichment in breath and plasma was increased in individuals on a HP diet. We conclude that a NP diet is accompanied by delayed progression of the continuous loss of endogenous insulin in IDDM. This phenomenon is possibly due to decreased insulin demand on the B cells and/or reduced hepatic glucose production favoring enhanced insulin sensitivity.
And another you have to fetch the .pdf to read for some reason I can't copy/paste from the pdf:
Long term effects of dietary protein intake on glucose metabolism in humans
T. Linn, et al
Geoffrey, thank you, I knew I could count on your for thoughtful and engaging input. I do think that I increased my protein intake too much after I stopped eating a vegan diet and didn’t realize until recently that protein can be converted to glucose very easily (I guess I should have consulted my biochem notes earlier, eh?). So, I think that’s why a more low to moderate protein approach seems to be appropriate for insulin-sensitivity impaired folks, and that combined with low-carb and high fat seems to help as well. In regards to the cardiovascular risk and saturated fat, I’ve been really trying to dig into this issue and understand the changes that seem to be coming forth from the scientific community. I am finding it all to be fascinating and just brought home from the library a book called The Big Fat Surprise.
Hi Alison! I’m so glad you asked that question about making this dish vegan. The eggs definitely serve as a binder, but they also add protein, so a couple of flax or chia eggs would probably be a good way to make it plant-based. I personally would probably want to add some nut butter as a topping if I left out the eggs, though, just to make it a little more filling. LMK how it turns out! 🙂
Will do, Carrie. Thanks so much!
I finally made this with some flax and chia meal in place of the eggs. It was delicious! I’ve missed having oatmeal in the mornings and this is the perfect replacement. In fact, I like this even better since I feel good after I eat it. Plus it’s a great way to get in extra veggies. I’m playing around with savory versions for my hubby. Thanks for this wonderful recipe, Carrie!! xo
Ohhhh, so glad you liked it, Alison! For a savory version, I’ve been steaming the cauli, adding butter (you could use a plant-based fat instead), and a dash of salt, oregano, and thyme. Then, I blend it really, really well in the Blendtec and it’s like mashed potatoes. I don’t eat it for breakfast, but I make this 2-3 times a week to go with lunch. 🙂
That sounds delicious, Carrie. Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried a few savory cauliflower “rice” dishes, but I have yet to try a mashed cauliflower or a savory “noatmeal” dish. I might try something with curry since my hubby loves that flavor so much. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything good. 🙂
Oh my gosh, cauli mash with curry sounds amazing, you could totally serve it with lentils and veg for an Indian-inspired dish. YUM!!!
Yum!!! You are a genius!!! I actually just bought a head of cauliflower yesterday so now I think I know what I’m going to do with it 🙂 I think pretty much everything I eat falls into the “strange but good” category, so I hopefully that translates into me being a “strange but good” person in general. Ha ha.
So if you’ve been looking to Dave Asprey, have you tried his Bulletproof Coffee too????
Sarah, strange but good is def a good description for my personality, too! Happy I’m not alone in that regard. 🙂 Will you let me know what you think of this recipe? I would love to know how it turns out for you. And, yes, I’ve been doing the BP coffee for about the last 2 weeks and it’s been transformative…seriously! I will write about it soon. Have you tried butter coffee?
See I always thought you seemed perfectly normal so maybe we are the normal ones and everyone else is strange 😉
I wish I could test out your exact recipe, but sadly I can’t do coconut, cinnamon, chocolate, or eggs, so my version won’t be anything quite like yours… But I’m still going to try to putting it in my oats tomorrow – which I usually make with kale, but I bet this will add a nice creamy touch. I’ll let you know how my boring version turns out though.
I’ve never tried the BP coffee with the butter and all and honestly it sounds rather gross to me. I am a black coffee drinker so pretty much any pollution in my coffee isn’t very appealing. I’ve heard so many people rave about it, so I’m anxious to read about your experience. I did try his coffee beans once to see if there was a difference, but I wasn’t a huge fan if them either since they are such a light roast. Much to my dismay, I’ve had to stop drinking coffee altogether because for some reason the caffeine started to make me even more crazy and I was getting the late afternoon these jitters and anxiety type attacks that even sent me to the emergency room a few times! I don’t know what the heck happened, because I never used to have that degree of caffeine sensitivity, but now I can’t even tolerate a few sips in the morning without feeling the effects in the afternoon/evening. I usually only had one cup in the morning, but it was my favorite part of the day and I’m missing it terribly. Not that you needed to know all this, but I am curious to hear about your experience with the BP coffee and if you notice any difference in terms of caffeine jitters etc. since I believe one of his clams about it’s benefits is that it won’t produce such an effect. I really can’t wait to hear about your coffee transformation!! I vote for it to be your next post!!!
Ha ha, I like that, Sarah (we are normal, everyone else is strange). HA!
So the weird thing is that I used to be TOTALLY intolerant of caffeine, especially coffee, it turned me into a huge jittery mess with sweating and anxiety and all of that. But, since I make it the cold-brew way, it really doesn’t seem to lead to any negative effects. I’m not buying Dave’s coffee beans either, I’m just buying the organic, fair-trade stuff from wherever I can find it at a good price. I can’t say for sure that it’s the cold-press that’s somehow making the difference, or that my gut lining is a lot healthier and so perhaps it’s just getting metabolized slower or something, or maybe a combination of the two? But, what I can say is that caffeine in the morning, either from tea or coffee, has made a HUGE improvement in my energy and mood issues, and so I’m a huge fan.
I promise I will write about this in the future, but I need to let some more time pass so I can get an idea of the changes that are occurring and all of that. We can def discuss over e-mail if you like in the meantime?
LMK how you like your cauli oats. Without the chocolate, coconut, and eggs, I’d probably throw in some peanut butter, though. 🙂
Love this cauliflower recipe. Thank you!
You’re so welcome, Christine! 🙂