Low carb macaroni and cheese isn’t impossible and this low carb recipe is made in a few minutes in the microwave. Cauliflower stands in for the pasta in this keto recipe. It’s perfect and low carb enough for keto induction.
For this low carb recipe, you’ll need cauliflower, heavy cream, cream cheese, spicy mustard, hot sauce, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.
Table of Contents
Is there a low carb macaroni?
Isn’t food in a jar cute? It’s all the rage on Pinterest now. It seems like you can find about anything in a jar. I’m waiting for the Filet Mignon in a jar personally.
Food in a jar isn’t anything new. A lot of us have used those nifty canning jars for decades. I mean, what else are you going to do with them when canning season is over and you start emptying them out? I must have 200 canning jars stored in my high cupboards and I don’t have time to garden or can my peaches anymore.
If you ask someone who is on a keto diet, the comfort food they miss most are likely to have macaroni and cheese on the list right? Well, I haven’t been happy with the various faux macaroni and cheese recipes. The texture was weird, the flavor wasn’t what I was looking for, well you know the story.
You know what I did, right?
Yup. I made my own. But not just that. I made low carb macaroni and cheese that you can cook in a jar. One cheesy serving that you can take to work and cook in the microwave in minutes. One comforting low carb pasta meal that has just a few carbs, smells delicious, and goes with you anywhere. You can even make several jars and keep them in your refrigerator for instant meals.
If you want to freeze the jars you can but you’ll want to blanch the cauliflower before adding it to the jar. Trust me on that one.
It isn’t exactly macaroni and cheese. I mean that’s a lot to ask of cauliflower. It’s delicious as it’s covered in a cheese sauce. I bet it’ll completely curb those cravings for pasta. The stuff of my dreams that I can’t have on a keto diet.
How did I make this keto macaroni and cheese? I used cauliflower mac instead of elbow pasta that is used in a regular macaroni and cheese recipe. One cup of regular macaroni and cheese has 44 carbs. One serving of my low carb cauliflower mac and cheese has only 10 net carbs. Covered in cheddar cheese, the cauliflower faux noodle tastes amazing. I tried to use zucchini noodles and they are better as a noodle substitute rather than standing in for elbow pasta. I had some frozen cauliflower and unfortunately the amount of moisture in it made this main dish a little too loose.
A few things that I’ve tried to kick this keto recipe up a notch. I tried adding a little parmesan cheese and it adds a nice saltiness to the cheese sauce. A little garlic powder seems to help everything, although I didn’t notice it as much as the parmesan cheese addition.
Recently there have been a lot of comments that the calorie count was much higher than I figured. This was due to a typo in the recipe which called for 1/4 cup of cheddar or 4 ounces. 1/4 cup of cheddar cheese is only one ounce. It was my mistake and I do apologize. The nutrition info is correct. Thanks to all that let me know.
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This low carb macaroni and cheese recipe is set to make 1 generous serving. You can make enough for the whole family if you’d like. If you put your cursor (or finger) over the number “1” next to the “Servings” heading in the recipe below, a slider will appear. You can move the slider to the number of servings you want to make. The low carb macaroni and cheese recipe will automatically change the amount of each ingredient for you.
Low Carb Macaroni and Cheese in a Jar
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Cauliflower broken into small florets
- 2 tablespoon Heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon of water
- 1 tablespoon Cream cheese broken into small pieces
- 1 teaspoon Spicy mustard
- A couple of drops of hot sauce
- 1/4 cup Smoky cheddar or extra sharp cheddar
- Salt
- Coarsely ground black pepper
Instructions
- Mix the cream, water, mustard, and the hot sauce and put into the bottom of a half pint wide mouth jar.
- Add a pinch of the cheese and a few crumbles of cream cheese.
- Add a layer of the raw cauliflower.
- Add a layer of cheese and cream cheese.
- Repeat ending with a layer of cheese.
- Sprinkle with salt and generously add pepper.
- Cover the top with plastic wrap and then the screw on jar lid.
- Store in the refrigerator
To Serve
- Take the lid off.
- Leave the plastic wrap on and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.
- Shake the jar well.
- Microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes more – or until as tender as you like.
- Shake the jar to mix the cheese and sauce.
- Let sit for 1 minutes.
- Carefully remove plastic wrap and enjoy
Notes
Nutrition
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The 4 oz are by volume not weight. But 1/4 cup is 2 oz by volume I believe. Anyway I am going to try it. Hungry for a good low carb casserole
Let me know what you think.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS
You’re welcome!
If you don’t have extra sharp cheddar cheese, you could add a little grated Parmesan to taste. — maybe 1 tsp for this recipe. It’ a good work around.
What a great idea!
114 calories in 1 oz. of cheddar. I googled it.
🙂
Awesome recipe! any ideas what I can use instead of heavy whipping cream?
thank you
Sarah you could use greek yogurt or try coconut milk.
I used whole milk and it came out great!
Thanks!