Cauliflower Rice is the low carb alternative to rice, with 77% less calories and 89% less carbs. When made well, you will be astonished how delicious it is served with anything and everything you usually serve with rice!
Cook it in the microwave, oven or stove. Use the method that best works for you!
Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower masquerading as rice.
Is it as good as rice?No.And anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying, or doesnt know what tasty food is.
But is it a verygoodhealthy substitute for rice thatcan be made to be delicious in its own right?
YES IT IS!
So what does it taste like?It tastes MILDLY like cauliflower. Its not as cauliflowery as plain steamed florets because the cauliflower flavour is tempered when grated into little rice size pieces which is what you want.
And because cauliflower has a neutral flavour, its easily disguised when doused with a tasty sauce like this Honey Garlic Chickenwith Cucumber Salad on the side. When you get stuck into it, you may well forget its not rice!
How to make Cauliflower Rice
The best and fastest way is to push cauliflower florets through the feeding tube into a food processorfitted with the grating disc.
This blitzes up the cauliflower into rice shaped bits and will make your cauliflower rice eating experience as similar as possible to rice.
Dont have a grating disc attachment?
The grating disc works better than thedefault S curve blade that food processors come with to evenly grate all the cauliflower into rice shaped pieces.
While you can just use the default S curve blade, youll find that some ends up more like couscous while some is rice size. Or some are lentil size and some are rice size.You get the gist. S blade works pretty well, but the grating disc works better.
No food processor?
No worries! Just use your everyday standard grater. This actually works better than using the S blade of a food processor to make rice-size pieces, but its messier. Youwill get little bits of cauliflower everywhere on the counter, and probably on the floor!
Today Im going to show you how to cook plain cauliflower rice, intended to be served like white rice with saucy things like stir fries and curries. In the coming weeks, Ill also share some recipes made by cooking cauliflower rice which are knock-your-socks-off delicious!
How to cook Cauliflower Rice
Choose the method that fits in best with your way of cooking:
- Microwave steam (fastest) place in container with lid (no water), microwave on high 4 minutes
- Oven steam place in baking dish, cover with lid or foil, bake 20 minutes at 200C/390F
- Oven bake(great nutty flavour) toss with a bit of oil, bake 15 minutes at 200C/390F.
- Stove saut with a little oil for around 4 minutes
How to serve Cauliflower Rice
Serve with anything that you usually serve with rice, and use it in place of rice in things like rice salads! Here are some suggestions.
1. Stir Fries
Perfect to soak up tasty Stir Fry sauces!
2. Curries
Ideal for dousing with rich, flavour loaded Curry sauces.
3. Anything saucy
Anything saucey that you like served with rice!
4. Rice and Couscous Salads
Use in place of Couscous or Rice in salads, such as these:
How to cook with cauliflower rice
Cooking with cauliflower rice is not always a straight substitution as rice needs 1.5 to 2 cups of liquid for every cup of dried rice, whereascauliflower rice doesnt require liquid to cook it. It also cooks in about 1/3 of the time as white rice.
However, you can use the sauce and non liquid flavourings in my rice side dish recipes as a guide to dress up your cauliflower rice.
And its particularly good forfried rice. You can use any of my fried rice recipes and do a direct swap substituting cooked rice withraw cauliflower rice.
Fried Rice Recipes
Even if youre a cynic (and I was for a very long time), I really hope you give this a go at least once. Think of all the calories youre saving and what you can use all those calorie credits for! Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Cauliflower Rice
Recipe video above. The trick to really good cauliflower rice to make it as similar as possible to real rice is to use the grating disc for the food processor (or box grater). This will make the cauliflower similar in size and texture to real rice! Cook it in the microwave, stove or oven. Roasting is my favourite gets a slight nutty flavour and least cauliflower flavour. Serve in place of rice with stir fries, curries, anything saucy, in salads etc.
- 1 head cauliflower ((or 500g/1lb store bought prepared cauliflower rice, Note 1))
- Cut / break cauliflower into florets (including stems) that will fit into the feeding tube of food processor.
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Fit food processor with grating disc. Place lid on, then push the florets into the feeding tube with the motor running on low.
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Cauliflower will blitz into rice shaped bits! Can use raw but I prefer cooking it use a method below.
Other grating methods:
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Food processor standard "S" blade fill halfway with florets, pulse 4 to 5 times until largest bits are the size of cooked rice (half will be couscous size, half rice sized). Repeat as needed.
- Hand grating cut whole cauliflower into quarters, then grate by hand.
Cooking Method options (6 8 cups rice):
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Only cook cauliflower rice until it is just cooked don't let it go soft and mushy (it gets watery).
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Roasting drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Toss, spread on tray, bake at 200C/390F for 15 minutes, tossing halfway through cook time.
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Microwave place in container with lid with vent open. Microwave 4 to 5 minutes on high until tender crisp. Don't overcook too soggy.
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Oven steam place in covered baking dish, bake 200C/390F for 20 minutes.
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Stove Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Optional: Cook 2 minced garlic cloves 20 sec until golden. Add rice, cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring every minute or so, for 5 minutes until just cooked.
Serving:
- Serve in place of rice with stir fries, curries, anything saucy that you like serving with rice.
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Use in place of rice or grains in salads and fried rice.
1. Frozen if using frozen, can microwave or oven steam from frozen. For other cook methods, thaw, drain excess liquid then cook per directions.
2. Yield 1 medium cauliflower 1.25kg/2.5lb (including stalk) yields about 700g / 1.4 lb 7 cups of raw rice.
3. Cooking with cauliflower rice cannot use as a straight sub in recipes where rice is cooked in liquid because unlike normal rice, cauliflower rice does not need to absorb liquid to cook. See in post for tips for how to cook with cauliflower rice.
4. Storing:
- Raw airtight container for 5 days in the fridge, or freeze
- Cooked 4 days in the fridge (I find it gets a bit soggy after this)
5. Nutrition per serving, cauliflower rice only.
Life of Dozer
100% complete and utter zero interest in todays recipe
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