Side Dish Sundays: Broccoli Cheddar Tots.
Welcome to our family’s current obsession: broccoli cheddar tots!
Can’t even believe I’m typing that out here, but we are in love with tots right now. Tots of the broccoli variety. Who even am I?
In the last few months, Emilia has fallen in love with these broccoli cheese nuggets. I mean, they are REALLY good.
For example, just to express how in love she is… she squeals with glee when she sees the box alone. She stands at the freezer and bangs on the door for broccoli tots!
The problem is that we could easy go through a box a day in this house. I was trying to limit us to only eating them one day a week, therefore I figured I had to try my hand at my own.
That’s why I’m back with another Side Dish Sunday, even though we could eat these as a snack. We.are.obsessed.
A couple things about broccoli cheddar tots!
- First of all, I didn’t add any potato or sweet potato. A lot of other recipes do. These are SUPER broccoli-y. I wanted them to be all broccoli and cheese, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I even considered making a cheddar sauce to dip them in. Yes. I wanted to dip cheddar tots in cheddar sauce.
- Next, I baked mine at 450 because I really wanted a golden, crunchy outsides and that roasted broccoli flavor. It totally works! I achieved both of those – however, these tots are quite unfortunate looking. I swear their appearance doesn’t not reflect their delish flavor.
- Dipping sauce! I def don’t think you have to make a special sauce for this, but you can dip them in ketchup or mustard or whatever you’d like! I don’t think they even need a sauce. But then again… everything is better with dip.
- Finally, I used very finely chopped broccoli – basically riced broccoli. The frozen version of these has large chunks of broccoli in them and I don’t love that. So this is my solution! You can totally use store-bought riced broccoli. I’d aim for about 1 ½ to 2 cups of riced broccoli, but if it seems like too much, you could always add an extra egg white or breadcrumbs to hold things together.
- p.s. You can freeze these and make them ahead of time!
10 dishes I love to serve with broccoli cheddar tots:
It’s a little ridiculous, because I’d pretty much eat these with everything. They go great with chicken, salmon or any sort of burger or sandwich. You could also use them for a little green crunchy bite on top of salads!
Pesto Chicken Parmesan Sliders
Tortilla Crusted Salmon Burgers
How to Make Broccoli Cheddar Tots
Broccoli Cheddar Tots
Ingredients
- 1 pound broccoli florets, about 1 ½ to 2 cups riced broccoli
- 5 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, freshly grated
- ¼ cup seasoned bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
chipotle dipping sauce
- 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
- ¼ cup mayo
- 1 chipotle pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce, from a can of chipotles in adobo
Instructions
broccoli tots
- As a note, I like to have 1 pound of florets, chopped from the stem.
- Put the broccoli florets in a food processor and pulse until crumbs remain – you want it to almost look like green snow. Place all of the broccoli in a microwave-safe bowl and cover it with a paper towel. Microwave for 5 minutes. Remove the broccoli and spread it on a towel to cool.
- Once cool, wrap the broccoli in a kitchen towel and squeeze every last bit of water and liquid out of it over your sink. When you think you’re finished, squeeze again! You want all of the moisture out. You will be left with about 1 ½ cups or so of riced broccoli.
- Place the broccoli in a large bowl and mix in the white cheddar, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Mix until well combined.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form the broccoli mixture into tots (or balls, or whatever you’d like!) and place them on the parchment. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Stick the baking sheet in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- At this point, you can bake them, or you can flash freeze them. If you want to freeze for later, after the 30 minutes, transfer them to a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer!
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray. Place the tots on the sheet.
- Bake the tots for 15 minutes, then gently flip them if you can and roast for 10 more. Serve immediately!
chipotle dipping sauce
- Whisk ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. This is spicy, so I wouldn’t suggest serving it to kids!
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
In love even if they are ugly.
21 Comments on “Side Dish Sundays: Broccoli Cheddar Tots.”
What might a good egg substitute be? I always want to buy them at the store but my kid has an egg allergy. Maybe a flax or chia egg?? Thanks! They look good!
i think you could def do a flax egg! :)
EGG WOW.
So Yummy… Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe.
thank you
If I peeled the stems could they also be used? Or only the florets? I think the stem interiors are very tender and yummy (my favorite part)!This looks great!
yes! definitely can use the stems!
Anything to get more veg into the hub. Would a silpat work?
yep!! it totally should!
Do you think almond flour could be used in place or breadcrumbs to make them GF?
yes! i do.
You did a really great job of photographing these “ugly” tots! Can’t wait to try this out.
Making these right now! I hope they live up to the hype because they’re a lot of effort, haha.
let me know how they are!
They were pretty good! I think I might either lower the oven temp or shorten the cook time if I make them again because they got a little more well done than I wanted. Also they somehow came out REALLY salty and I’m not sure how since I didn’t add that much salt. Maybe the breadcrumbs I used or something?
These are great! I did add 2 T. Parmesan cheese and 1/4 t. red pepper flake. I think I will serve them next time with a marinara dipping sauce. Thanks for sharing!!
Just made these! They are in the freezer. If I decide to keep them in the freezer for baking at a different time, what adjustments do you recommend to the cooking time? Any adjustments to temp?
Thanks!! xo
Looks Awesome… Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe.
Omg so easy and delicious!! I made these a few hours before my guests arrived and stuck them in the freezer before popping them in the oven. The sauce was tasty too. Thanks for sharing!
These were delicious! I’ve had varying results with cauliflower tots I’ve Madde in the past but there were great! The cheese really helped to crisp them up! In full disclosure, I did forget to add the breadcrumbs (d’oh…*face palm*…don’t know how I missed that!) but they were still awesome! I loved the sauce too. My husband, who isn’t a huge vegetable fan, devoured them!
These were so good! I’ve made them twice now. My toddler squealed when she saw me taking them out of the oven