Baked Cheddar Broccoli Tots are a breeze to make, a huge hit with kids and full of flavor that’ll help cut down on the carbs and fat of regular tater tots!
Baked Cheddar Broccoli Tots are a wonderful side dish that you can use to augment or replace regular tater tots in your family’s dinner rotation. We’re always looking for ways to incorporate more veggies into meals and snacks with the kids (especially green vegetables!) and these tots have become a huge hit with kids and adults alike.
Here’s the video of this recipe:

Served with some awesome dipping sauces, ketchup for my oldest and greek yogurt for my youngest, they are a fun side dish to add to almost any weeknight meal. We’ve even baked them into mac and cheese for the kids and they get excited when they find the tots inside (total parent win to get kids excited about broccoli btw). When we got home I started talking to a couple of blogging friends about tater tots with broccoli and found that a couple of good blogging friends from Natural Girl Modern World had photographed these amazing Baked Broccoli Tots (linked below).
To make them a bit more weeknight and kid friendly I left out a couple of ingredients and the hot sauce, but these Baked Cheddar Broccoli Tots were a HUGE hit. Since that dinner we’ve made these tots a half dozen times (mind you this is just in the last month), because I am all about getting green vegetables into the little ones. They are and have always been obsessed with grape tomatoes, but broccoli has always been a struggle, that’s why this recipe has been such an awesome addition to our meal rotations.
Making these Baked Cheddar Broccoli Tots are a great alternative to regular tater tots, but you can also make them with other vegetables as well.
- Carrots make a great alternative to the broccoli and look like sweet potatoes but with less carbs.
- Cauliflower is an easy swap for the broccoli, just be sure to steam them a bit longer than the broccoli.
- Zucchini! We LOVE making this with zucchini now and have also been experimenting with half zucchini and half broccoli.
- Enjoy the fall season and make this with steamed and minced pumpkin or butternut squash!
- Any vegetable you can steam to soften will work well in this Baked Cheddar Broccoli Tots recipe.


Ingredients
- 2 cups broccoli crowns (try to avoid as much of the thicker stalk as possible)
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup yellow onion , minced and squeezed in a paper towel to remove juices
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons minced green onions
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- canola oil spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and spray a baking sheet with oil.
- Add the broccoli to a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes covered with a wet paper towel.
- Mince the broccoli as small as you can and add it to the rest of the ingredients in large bowl.
- Using a heaping tablespoon of the mixture, roll it in your hands before pressing down on the top and bottom of the ball while pressing in on the sides and rotating to make a "tot" shape.
- Place onto the baking sheet and spray the tops of the tots with an additional bit of canola oil spray.
- Bake for 7 minutes, turn the tots and bake an additional seven minutes.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was sponsored by Gerber but all the opinions are my own.
My kids loved this recipe! They are messy to hand roll out, but trust the process. I did add extra cheese (probably closer to 3/4 to 1 cup total) just to try to get them to bind together better after cooking. I also added garlic powder (1/2 tsp), and about 1 T canola oils. I sprayed my pan and tops of tots with olive oil. I did follow baking directions, but when they weren’t as done as I liked. I bumped my temp up to 450 and cooked an additional 5 minutes – when I remake, I will probably set my oven to 425 (but this could be a temp difference between ovens). Will definitely make these again!!!
I would not make these again. They were so messy to roll out, mainly because they just crumbled apart. I made a double batch to put in the freezer for my 2 year old who doesn’t eat veggies. I haven’t given him any yet so I’m not sure if he even likes them but even if he does, it’s not worth the mess and struggle of trying to roll them while they crumble.
This recipe sounds great.. Also I think it could be air fried. ?
I air fried them and they were amazing. These will be on our rotation.
Sounds so good Jodi and thanks for the five star review!
I was making my 7 yr old waaaay to many tator tots for dinner now I can fuse his favorite veggie into a tot genius he loves broccoli so this would be a treat for both of us thank you!!!
You’re welcome!
Years ago a caterer served crispy bacon rolled around cheddar cheese, but it was not oozing or liquid. I think the bacon was partially cooked, then wrapped around a cube of frozen cheddar…but I don’t know. Has anyone ever heard of this recipe and can share how it was done>
Have you tried to eat these leftover from the refrigerator or after freezing? I’d love to make a huge batch of these and freeze!
Yes, you can freeze them. I would recommend flash freezing them on a try until frozen solid and then transferring them to a ziplock bag to keep in the freezer. It may take a few minutes long to bake once you’re ready to use them since they’ll be frozen. Hope this helps!
I am no expert chef and I was in a time crunch but I threw these together for my kiddos for a snack and I am SHOCKED at how fast I whipped them up and how delicious they are! We subbed Cauliflower for Broccoli and purple onion for yellow onion. I was working with what I had… like I said- time crunch lol
So glad you enjoyed them! They are so easy and quick….love the substitutions! Hey, work with what you have in a crunch, right?!
These look like I could get my girls to eat these! Gonna try soon!
This makes me want to buy some broccoli! Looks great!
These seem like JUST what I’ve been looking for! My question is, how far in advance can I make them without freezing them?
And also, have you tried cooking them from frozen? If so, how different do they come out compared to cooking from fresh?
I’m so glad you found this recipe. 🙂 Once made, I would either bake them or flash freeze them. You don’t want them to lose their shape and fall apart. They’ll take a few minutes longer to bake from frozen but will come out the same. Enjoy!
Pretty sure this would be a hit at our house! Thank you for such an amazing recipe! These look so delicious!
This looks super yummy! I’m always looking for new broccoli recipes to shake things up, and this looks fantastic!
Now this is a tater tot! I need to make these!
These look like the perfect thing to make to “encourage” my kiddos to eat more broccoli!
That’s the idea!