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Portions and preparation · USDA nutrition

Cauliflower calories per cup: 28–86 across all 7 named USDA examples

Across all 7 named USDA examples, a cup contains 28–86 calories. Their listed weights span 110–190 g, so each calorie value is calculated from that example's own gram weight and published calories per 100 g.

Portion calculator

Estimate your portion

Choose a source measure or enter the weight you ate.

Preparation and portion

Named measures come from this exact source record.

Estimated for 80 g

37calories

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine

Protein
1.6 g
Carbs
4 g
Fat
2 g

These values scale the selected reference food by weight. Ingredients, preparation, and portion size can change your meal’s estimate.

FoodData Central Survey Foods (FNDDS) · FDC 2709903 Full nutrition profile →

Compare all 7 food records, nutrition tables and USDA sources

The 7 exact records in this guide report 14–43 calories in the records' own listed source servings and 19–52 calories per 100 grams. Those are observations from named database records—not a universal range or an estimate of an unseen plate.

Match my meal

Start with the description closest to what you ate

For Cauliflower, begin by separating “Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine” from “Cauliflower, raw.” Choosing a card filters this source set; it does not infer the portion or fill in ingredients the chosen description does not name.

Showing the first 6 of 7 linked records.

Equal-weight view

How cauliflower records compare at 100 grams

Five rank landmarks are shown from all 7 cited records: minimum, 25th-ranked, median-ranked, 75th-ranked, and maximum. Weight is held at 100 grams; source-serving weights are listed in the table.

  1. Minimum: Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat 19 kcal
    19 kcal
  2. 25th-ranked landmark: Cauliflower, raw 25 kcal
    25 kcal
  3. Median-ranked landmark: Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with butter or margarine 38 kcal
    38 kcal
  4. 75th-ranked landmark: Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with oil 45 kcal
    45 kcal
  5. Maximum: Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil 52 kcal
    52 kcal

Shared basis: 100 g · kilocalories

What this page compares

Named source records, not one universal meal

This guide keeps 7 named USDA records in view: 7 direct matches. All sit within “Other vegetables and combinations.” The exact descriptions remain the unit of comparison; the familiar heading is only the doorway into the evidence.

Why these records appear together: The deterministic grouping rule “normalized first description segment” placed these 7 records together under the exact grouping key “cauliflower.” That rule determines membership before any nutrition result is read.

For Cauliflower, this page can compare 7 named records from FDC 2709903 through FDC 2709777. It cannot observe which preparation was eaten, recover unnamed additions, or supply the eaten grams.

Read the shared calculation, provenance, and uncertainty method →

Editor’s decision brief

The three facts to carry into the table

Carry the denominator, exact identity, and strongest observed contrast into every number below.

Portion

55–95 g before composition

The largest source amount is 1.7× the smallest. Read per-serving calorie differences with that mass gap in view.

Composition

33 kcal separates the fixed-weight endpoints

The lower endpoint is “frozen, cooked, no added fat”; the higher is “fresh, cooked with oil.” This isolates density, not ingredient causation.

Discriminator

135 mg sodium gap per 100 g

Of protein, fiber, and sodium, the strongest normalized contrast is between “raw” (30 mg) and “fresh, cooked with butter or margarine” (165 mg).

Observed source examples

Three landmarks inside this source set—not universal endpoints

The cards are ordered by calories in each record's listed serving. Serving weights differ, so use per-100-gram values to compare composition. These selected records do not define a calorie range for every cauliflower.

Important: “Lower” begins with Cauliflower, raw; “higher” ends with Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with oil, using each record’s own source amount. Those labels order this selected set only—they are not endpoints for every cauliflower meal.

Full comparison

Compare every selected FNDDS record

For Cauliflower, serving columns preserve each record’s own listed amount, while calories per 100 g hold weight constant. A dash means the cited record does not supply that field; it does not mean the nutrient is absent.

On smaller screens, focus the table and scroll horizontally to read every column.

USDA records selected for the Cauliflower nutrition guide
Exact source record Match Source amount Calories kcal / 100 g Protein Fiber Sodium USDA
Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine Direct name match 80 gUSDA reference amount 37 kcal 46 1.6 g 1.6 g 132 mg FDC 2709903 ↗
Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil Direct name match 80 gUSDA reference amount 42 kcal 52 1.6 g 1.6 g 118 mg FDC 2709902 ↗
Cauliflower, fresh, cooked, no added fat Direct name match 78 gUSDA reference amount 20 kcal 26 1.6 g 1.6 g 119 mg FDC 2709897 ↗
Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with butter or margarine Direct name match 95 gUSDA reference amount 36 kcal 38 1.5 g 2.5 g 140 mg FDC 2709905 ↗
Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with oil Direct name match 95 gUSDA reference amount 43 kcal 45 1.5 g 2.5 g 124 mg FDC 2709904 ↗
Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat Direct name match 93 gUSDA reference amount 18 kcal 19 1.5 g 2.5 g 125 mg FDC 2709898 ↗
Cauliflower, raw Direct name match 55 gUSDA reference amount 14 kcal 25 1.1 g 1.1 g 17 mg FDC 2709777 ↗

Portion analysis

Serving total and calorie density answer different questions

The listed source amounts run from 55 to 95 grams—a 40-gram gap before composition enters the comparison. Their own source servings run from 14 calories for “raw” to 43 for “frozen, cooked with oil.” At a fixed 100 grams, “frozen, cooked, no added fat” is 19 calories and “fresh, cooked with oil” is 52—a fixed-weight separation of 33 calories. For Cauliflower, the serving view answers “how much is in the database portion?”; the 100-gram view answers “how concentrated is the matched record?” Neither reveals how many grams were actually eaten.

The scaling rule: multiply a per-100-gram value by eaten grams ÷ 100. The arithmetic is exact; the result is only as defensible as the record match and portion estimate.

Preparation analysis

The long description carries the evidence

The published descriptions distinguish forms such as “fresh, cooked with butter or margarine”, “fresh, cooked, no added fat”, “frozen, cooked with butter or margarine”, “frozen, cooked, no added fat”, and “raw”. The source formulations contain 5 distinct ingredient codes; examples that appear in only part of the set include salt, table, cauliflower, raw, cauliflower, frozen, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt, and table fat, nfs. On this Cauliflower page, those rows make the records inspectable, but they are not a controlled experiment: they cannot tell us that one named input, by itself, caused a nutrient difference.

Database precision is not meal certainty. Retain the exact description beside the number so later corrections remain possible.

What changes the comparison

Four drivers worth checking before choosing a record

The family label “Cauliflower” cannot resolve the differences between Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine and Cauliflower, raw. The four checks below identify the record wording, source weight, and formulation evidence that can.

  1. 01

    Source weight before serving calories

    The source amounts span 55–95 grams. Compare per 100 grams before reading a serving-calorie gap as a composition gap.

  2. 02

    The words that split the family

    Representative record-level distinctions include “fresh, cooked with butter or margarine”, “fresh, cooked, no added fat”, “frozen, cooked with butter or margarine”, “frozen, cooked, no added fat”, and “raw”. Those phrases are evidence for choosing a record, not decorative subtitle text.

  3. 03

    Formulation evidence, with limits

    5 source-input codes appear across the selected records. Their presence and listed weights describe USDA formulations, not finished plated proportions.

  4. 04

    The unresolved plate

    Even “Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine” leaves the eaten grams and unnamed oils, sauces, toppings, substitutions, or leftovers unresolved. Preserve those Cauliflower unknowns for correction instead of converting them into false precision.

Record matching

Match identity first; scale quantity second

Read the source name as a sequence of decisions. First confirm that cauliflower is the right meal family. Then resolve the phrases that actually separate this set—“fresh, cooked with butter or margarine”, “fresh, cooked, no added fat”, “frozen, cooked with oil”, and “raw”—before comparing gram weight. If a package, menu, or known recipe provides a closer first-party description, prefer it and keep this USDA record as a transparent fallback.

A practical matching checklist

  1. Read the complete Cauliflower source description, including preparation and additions.
  2. Compare the listed source weight with the amount actually eaten.
  3. Prefer a current package or restaurant source when a specific branded item is known.
  4. Record toppings, sauces, cooking fat, sides, and substitutions that the selected description does not name.

Decision support from the exact records on this page

Turn source data into a better next decision

These conclusions and reading paths are computed from 7 exact records behind Cauliflower source-record guide. Links are chosen by record identity, controlled contrast, formulation input, nutrient spread, or serving context—not by loose keyword similarity.

Equal-weight result

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil is higher in total fat per 100 g

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil reports 3.3 g versus 0.2 g for Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat: a 3.1 g difference when both are normalized to 100 g.

Inspect the underlying evidence

The denominator changes the answer

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine is denser; Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with oil is higher in its source amount

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine reports 46 kcal per 100 g and 37 kcal in USDA source amount (80 g). Cauliflower, frozen, cooked with oil reports a lower 45 kcal per 100 g but a higher 43 kcal in USDA source amount (95 g).

Choose the record before reading the number

Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat and Cauliflower, raw are not interchangeable

The page keeps both records at the same 100 g denominator and makes Preparation wording (No matching controlled term in the source name versus raw) the explicit record-description contrast. It does not show that the wording difference caused a nutrient difference. Pick the description that matches the food in front of you rather than averaging away the distinction.

Inspect the underlying evidence

Contextual knowledge graph

Follow the relationship that matches your question

For Cauliflower source-record guide, each path states why the destination belongs here, so you can distinguish a true evidentiary connection from a merely similar label.

Compare two records on this page Cauliflower, fresh, cooked, no added fat vs Cauliflower, raw

Both records appear in this page’s evidence set. The explicit record-description contrast is Preparation wording: No matching controlled term in the source name versus raw; it is a selection cue, not evidence of cause.

Follow this evidence path Compare two records on this page Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat vs Cauliflower, raw

Both records appear in this page’s evidence set. The explicit record-description contrast is Preparation wording: No matching controlled term in the source name versus raw; it is a selection cue, not evidence of cause.

Follow this evidence path 7 context records in this source topic Other vegetables and combinations

Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine and Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil belong to this USDA source-category collection. Its displayed ranges and complete exact-record catalog provide the peer set for a manual comparison; the destination does not preselect this page’s record.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Salt, table

USDA input 2047 appears in 6 of 7 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 0.3–0.3 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path A formulation detail that separates records Cauliflower, raw

USDA input 11135 appears in 4 of 7 context records; its summed listed input weight spans 100–100 g across those source formulations. These are source-formulation input weights, not plated or serving weights. Follow the code to inspect every represented occurrence.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Sodium: density and serving context

In this page’s records, sodium runs from 30 mg in Cauliflower, raw to 165 mg in Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with butter or margarine, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path Put the observed spread in corpus context Calories: density and serving context

In this page’s records, calories runs from 19 kcal in Cauliflower, frozen, cooked, no added fat to 52 kcal in Cauliflower, fresh, cooked with oil, all per 100 g.

Follow this evidence path