Shown with added sausage for a breakfast casserole.
We’ve all tasted and love that well-known hash brown casserole. I certainly see no reason we low-carbing folks can’t still have it even though we can’t eat those real hash browns. The only changes needed here were substituting cauliflower for the potatoes and a low-carb homemade mushroom soup for the commercial soup. With those changes, this recipe is suitable for Atkins Induction Phase. This recipe is also great with crumbled, 1 lb. cooked pork sausage added to the ingredient list as shown above.
I keep a double batch of the linked soup made up in my freezer all the time, frozen in plastic drink cups in 1 cup amounts. It’s awfully convenient to just pop one out and defrost or put it right into the simmering pot. Since publishing this recipe, I have since found on Jen Eloff’s website, a condensed low-carb mushroom soup recipe I like even more than the one linked below. Either soup will work nicely in this hash browns recipe.
Here’s my recipe with necessary low-carb changes. This is such a large recipe I cook a half recipe unless I have company.
INGREDIENTS:
1 c. finely chopped green onion
1 c. (4oz) grated cheddar cheese
2 T. butter melted
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 10 oz. pkgs frozen cauliflower, thawed, drained well & coarsely chopped (or I prefer 1 head fresh, cooked & chopped)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. Dottie’s Mushroom Soup for Recipes
1/2 tsp. paprika for topping
DIRECTIONS: Thaw the frozen (or cook the fresh) cauliflower & drain well. Preheat oven to 350º. If adding sausage, brown it in a skillet. Mix first 7 ingredients in a bowl and stir in the sausage if using. Spray glass baking dish. Pour mixture into greased dish and bake at 350º for 30 minutes or until bubbly and “hash browns” are tender but not reduced to mush.
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 9 1-cup servings, each has: (does not include sausage)
190 cals, 15.94g fat, 7.36g carbs, 2.78g fiber, 4.58g NET CARBS, 6.28 g protein
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 
Would it Chang the taste of the receipe if I use Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup?
It won’t change the taste, but it is no longer a low-carb recipe then. You’d have to recalculate the numbers. I have another recipe from a friend, a much easier blender no-cook soup recipe you might like to try sometime that I have discovered SINCE creating this recipe. This recipe has replaced the Dottie’s recipe in all my recipes now. Super good and just like the real mccoy: http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/chicken-crepe-casserole.html (you have to scroll down the page to get to the soup recipe she uses in this casserole.) This one only takes a few minutes to whip up for recipes.
The recipe for the mushroom soup says Do Not Freeze, yet your post says you take it out of freezer to defrost. So which is it, freeze or not?
The original soup recipe author does not like to freeze cream. I will for some uses. For cooking, I don’t think the tendency to “separate” when frozen is a visually noticeable issue and am willing to freeze cream for certain uses. I find when heated, it re-incorporates into a smooth creamy product for using in casseroles and such. I would not want to use it for soup I’m serving as a soup or a pretty cheesecake however, as one might see the issue she is referring to in those uses. You do it however you want. I can tell you that freezing doesn’t impact flavor one bit.
Do you need to thaw the frozen cauliflower first or chop it up frozen. This definitely looks like something I will try!
I always defrost it, on the rare occasions I use it. That way it will drain off a good bit of its water before your dish goes together.
In the instructions, you mention making soup and freezing it. Does this recipe also work for soup?
Not sure what you’re asking, Mary. There’s soup IN it and the link for that is in the recipe (blue). If you’re wanting to know if the soups is also good to be eaten as a soup, yes it is. Or am i just not understanding your question?
I noticed in the soup directions, it says you cannot freeze. Does it change the consistency??
Cream can separate when defrosted and give the visual appearance of having “curdled” when reheated. That said, it does not hurt the flavor of the cream or the dish at all when this happens. I have actually frozen this very soup, in small plastic cups for convenient use. When I thaw and use it, it just hasn’t been a problem for me. This was one of my earliest low-carb recipes. But now that Jennifer Eloff has come up with a no-cook Cream of Mushroom Soup, I actually don’t use Dottie’s recipe anymore. Here is her recipe (scroll down the page a bit) if you want to try it in this hash brown dish: http://low-carb-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/chicken-crepe-casserole.html
Yum! This looks fantastic. I will definitely add the sausage to mine 🙂
It’s good both ways. Depends on whether you’re looking for a side dish or a complete meal. Hope you like it!! Let me know!