Cauliflower Baked Ziti Is So Good You Won’t Miss The Pasta

If you’re looking for a healthier way to satisfy a craving for comfort food, you’re going to love this cheesy, sauce-filled recipe for baked “ziti”—but doesn’t call for noodles at all. This low-carb version swaps noodles for cauliflower florets as the hearty substance in this meal.

The recipe for cauliflower baked ziti from the blog Lexi’s Clean Kitchen will prove all of the reasons why you need to go purchase a head of cauliflower, stat! It calls for pizza sauce, eggs, ricotta cheese, baby spinach, and Italian seasonings—basically all of the ingredients you love about traditional baked ziti.

Once everything’s been baked together in a Dutch oven, you’ll have a dish that’s ooey, gooey, chock full of tomato flavor and ready to be devoured:

If you’d like to add meat into the mix, you can follow along with this recipe from the blog Eating Bird Food, which adds lean ground turkey to the “pasta” to make it even more hearty. You’ll combine the turkey with cauliflower, pizza sauce, spinach, and cheeses to yield a dinner that’s worthy of replacing your traditional pasta night meal for good:

Besides being low-carb and completely delicious, these recipes can also be prepared ahead of time and stored in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them.

Since it’s so simple to switch out noodles for cauliflower — hence the popularity of cauliflower gnocchi, for example — you might want to try doing this for all of your favorite recipes. For instance, classic mac ‘n cheese can be upgraded into a low-carb meal option when you replace the elbow noodles for browned cauliflower. This recipe from the blog Domestically Creative looks oh-so cheesy and amazing, but is low-carb and has a sneaky serving of vegetables for kids who may not eat “cauliflower” but would never turn down “macaroni and cheese”:

Take it a step further by serving up any of these “pasta” dishes with low-carb breadsticks made using — you guessed it! — cauliflower.

According to a recipe from the blog Real Housemoms, a food processor will help you transform cauliflower into the “dough” of your dreams. Top with plenty of cheese, and you’ve created the perfect appetizer:

Who knew this vegetable was so versatile?! Anyone else craving cauliflower for dinner?