Cauliflower is a nutrient-dense cruciferous vegetable that delivers vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and potassium for very few calories. Its neutral taste and rice-like texture make it a favorite swap for grains and starches in low-carb and gluten-free meal plans. While a 100-gram raw serving contains only about 25 calories, the precise numbers depend on how much you eat, whether the cauliflower is raw or boiled, and whether you measure by weight or volume.
This calculator lets you enter a serving amount in grams, ounces, cups, or fractions of a medium head. It then estimates calories, protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and sugar, plus key micronutrients and their contribution to daily values. The result screen also shows the math behind each figure so you can trust the estimate or adjust it for your own recipe.
Whether you are building a keto-friendly dinner, tracking macros in a food diary, or planning baby-led weaning portions, this quick reference tool helps you log cauliflower accurately without opening a nutrition database.
🥦 Cauliflower Nutrition Calculator
Estimate calories, macros, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and potassium from any serving of cauliflower.
Enter a serving amount and press Calculate.
Step-by-Step Guide
Start by choosing the cauliflower form — Raw or Boiled, drained — because cooking changes the nutrient numbers. Boiling raises the water content of the florets and leaches water-soluble vitamins into the cooking water, so a boiled serving delivers less vitamin C and potassium per gram than the same raw weight. Next, enter the amount you plan to eat. You can type a value directly or tap a quick-pick button for common portions: 100 g, 1 cup, 3 oz, or half a medium head. Select the matching unit from the dropdown, then press Calculate nutrition.
A medium cauliflower head weighs about 588 g, which is roughly 5 to 6 cups of chopped florets. If you are logging a whole head that you steamed or roasted, entering 1 head is the fastest route. If a recipe calls for “1 cup of cauliflower rice,” note that riced cauliflower can pack more tightly than florets; 1 cup of raw cauliflower rice weighs close to 107 g and about 124 g after boiling. For the most reliable tracking, weigh cauliflower on a kitchen scale before cooking.
How the Estimates Are Calculated
The calculator draws its nutrient values from the USDA FoodData Central database. For each form of cauliflower, the database lists nutrients per 100 grams. The tool converts your serving to grams, divides by 100, and multiplies every nutrient by that factor. A 250 g serving, for example, produces a factor of 2.5, so calories, protein, and vitamins are simply 2.5 times the per-100 g values. The same logic applies whether you start from ounces, cups, or head fractions.
Percent Daily Values use FDA reference amounts for a 2,000-calorie diet: vitamin C 90 mg, vitamin K 120 mcg, folate 400 mcg DFE, potassium 4,700 mg, fiber 28 g, calcium 1,300 mg, protein 50 g, and fat 78 g. These percentages show how much one serving contributes to your daily needs, not how much you should eat in a single sitting.
Boiling changes two things at once: the florets absorb water, which dilutes nutrients per gram, and heat-sensitive vitamins such as vitamin C and folate are lost. In the USDA data, raw cauliflower provides 299 mg of potassium per 100 g, while boiled cauliflower provides only 142 mg.
Worked Examples
Example 1 — 150 g of raw cauliflower. A generous side portion. Factor = 1.5. Calories: 25 × 1.5 ≈ 38 kcal. Carbohydrates: 4.97 × 1.5 = 7.5 g. Fiber: 2.0 × 1.5 = 3.0 g. Net carbs: 7.5 − 3.0 = 4.5 g. Vitamin C: 48.2 × 1.5 = 72.3 mg, which is 80% of the daily value.
Example 2 — 1 cup of boiled cauliflower (124 g). Factor = 1.24. Calories: 23 × 1.24 ≈ 29 kcal. Folate: 44 × 1.24 ≈ 55 mcg DFE (14% DV). Potassium: 142 × 1.24 ≈ 176 mg (4% DV).
Example 3 — Half a medium head, raw (294 g). Factor = 2.94. Calories: 25 × 2.94 ≈ 74 kcal. Fiber: 2.0 × 2.94 = 5.9 g (21% DV). Vitamin K: 15.5 × 2.94 ≈ 46 mcg (38% DV).
These examples show how much portion size and cooking method matter. Entering a weight or cup measure instead of guessing “a serving” makes your food diary noticeably more accurate.
Reference Table: Cauliflower per 100 g
| Nutrient | Raw | Boiled, drained |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 25 kcal | 23 kcal |
| Protein | 1.92 g | 1.84 g |
| Carbohydrates | 4.97 g | 4.11 g |
| Fiber | 2.0 g | 2.1 g |
| Total sugar | 1.91 g | 1.61 g |
| Fat | 0.28 g | 0.45 g |
| Vitamin C | 48.2 mg | 44.3 mg |
| Vitamin K | 15.5 mcg | 15.5 mcg |
| Folate | 57 mcg DFE | 44 mcg DFE |
| Potassium | 299 mg | 142 mg |
| Sodium | 30 mg | 15 mg |
| Calcium | 22 mg | 16 mg |
Values are rounded from USDA FoodData Central entries for “Cauliflower, raw” and “Cauliflower, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt.” Actual numbers vary slightly by cultivar, season, and storage time.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Logging cooked weight instead of raw weight. When you roast or steam cauliflower, water evaporates, so the cooked weight drops even though the vegetables contain the same nutrients. Nutrition databases list values for the raw ingredient, so weigh the florets before cooking and log that number.
Forgetting added fat. Plain cauliflower is nearly fat-free, but stir-frying with 1 tablespoon of olive oil adds roughly 120 kcal and 14 g of fat. If you roasted it in oil or served it with butter or cheese sauce, add those calories separately.
Treating cups of rice like cups of florets. Cauliflower rice can be packed more firmly than chopped florets, which changes the weight per cup. When macros matter, use grams rather than cup measures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is cauliflower keto-friendly? Yes. A 100 g raw serving contains about 5 g of carbohydrate and 2 g of fiber, so net carbs are roughly 3 g. That is why cauliflower is such a popular base for low-carb rice, pizza crust, and mashed “potatoes.”
Does boiling remove all the vitamin C? No, but it reduces it noticeably — from about 48 mg to 44 mg per 100 g in USDA data, and the loss can be larger with long cooking times or large amounts of water. Steaming or microwave cooking preserves more vitamin C than boiling.
Can I use this calculator for frozen cauliflower? The values here describe fresh raw and boiled cauliflower. Frozen cauliflower is usually blanched before freezing, so its numbers fall between the raw and boiled figures. For strict tracking, look up the specific frozen product in USDA FoodData Central.
Why does this tool show a Daily Value for fiber but not for sugar? The FDA does not set a Daily Value for total sugar, so the calculator reports the gram amount and leaves the percentage blank. Fiber, by contrast, has a daily reference of 28 g. For background on cauliflower varieties and history, see Wikipedia's cauliflower article.