Cauliflower ‘nachos’ are a low-carb version of your favorite spicy snack

When you’re on a low-carb diet, or just trying make healthier replacements, it can be difficult to find substitutes for your favorite foods. Fortunately, if you’re a fan of Mexican cuisine, there’s one food that can bring nachos back into your diet — cauliflower!

I’ve written before about the magic that is cauliflower because it really is an amazing substitute for some unhealthier foods. But I have never once thought of using it for nachos.

Apparently, I may be the only one, as the internet is full of nacho recipes that use cauliflower in place of carb-heavy tortilla chips.

One recipe from Wholesome Yum not only has fewer than 10 ingredients, but it also looks incredibly easy. All you need is cauliflower, avocado oil, taco seasoning, turkey sausage, and your preferred toppings, such as cheese, tomatoes, and cilantro.

You need to turn the cauliflower into chips and bake it first, so this recipe takes a bit more time than regular nachos. Still, the rest of the process is the same as making ordinary nachos. 

If you’re OK with substituting some chips for cauliflower but still want at least a few regular nachos, the blog Damn Delicious has a recipe that uses one head of cauliflower and six ounces of tortilla chips.

There are more ingredients to this dish, but mostly because you’ll be making your own seasoning instead of using the store-bought kind.

The seasoning is made with olive oil, garlic, cumin, chili powder and paprika, as well as the traditional salt and pepper.

In addition to the expected ingredients like cauliflower and cheddar cheese, the recipe also calls for black beans, jalapeno, onions, and fresh cilantro.

As you might have gathered from the ingredients list, this recipe is also vegetarian. It swaps ground turkey for black beans, which means you’ll be cutting out both carbs and meat. To make the nachos, all you have to do is coat the cauliflower in oil and seasoning, bake it, and then mix it with the tortilla chips.

Top the chip and cauliflower mix with the beans and cheese and put it all back in the oven.

If you don’t mind the carbs but would like something just a bit healthier, try this recipe from Tostitos for Greek-style nachos.

As the name suggests, instead of loading the nachos with beef, cheese and sour cream, you’ll opt for traditional Greek toppings such as tomato, cucumber, olives, red onion, feta cheese, and tzatziki sauce.

If you want to continue with the healthy theme, you could probably put the Greek nachos on cauliflower too. But since the rest of the ingredients are pretty nutritious, I’d say it’s OK to splurge on chips!

Will you be substituting cauliflower for tortilla chips the next time you make nachos?