It may sound strange, but Cauliflower Rice is a great alternative for rice in a low-carb, grain-free diet!
So….have you ever heard of cauliflower rice? I’ll admit that up until 6 months ago, the only time I ate cauliflower was if it was cut up small and smothered in ranch dip.
I truly have come a long way.
As we set out last summer on eating less grains, less dairy, less sugar and more meat and vegetables, I found it really hard to cook the same recipes I had been for so many years.
After I threw a little fit to Matt complaining that I could never learn to cook “paleo” style meals, I decided to do some research on some simple recipes that would be considered “Whole 30” approved.
Almost right away, I found something called Cauliflower Rice. I was fairly certain that in no way would this be a substitute for rice that we had often eaten. I hesitated even serving this to Matt, since he doesn’t really like it when I “hide” vegetables in things or make “healthy substitutes”.
But…
You heard a “but” coming, didn’t you? I’ll have to say that we were all pleasantly surprised. I really thought it would have a weird taste, but it doesn’t. Sometimes the rice has a stronger”veggie” aroma than other times, but I have a fairly sensitive nose and this has never turned me off from eating it.
This Cauliflower Rice is simple to make, and we’ve used it in so many of our standard recipes that call for rice. Our favorite times to use cauliflower rice are when we have burritos or for making fried rice. I’ll be sharing recipes over time that can use cauliflower rice, so here’s how we make it!
You’ll need a washed head of cauliflower, a food processor and a Ziploc Zip & Steam bag.
Cut the cauliflower heads off and cut or break them into small pieces. Put the cauliflower pieces into your food processor. We love our Ninja…you can buy one here
Process that cauliflower until you have little rice-size pieces.
Then you’ll take those tiny pieces of raw cauliflower and empty them into a Ziploc Zip & Steam bag. If you’ve never used one of these bags, you’re missing out. It makes steamed veggies so easy! Whatever type of veggies you love, just throw them into the bag, seal it, and microwave them from 3-6 minutes. So simple that there’s really no excuse why you can’t be eating steamed veggies! You can find these where the Ziploc bags are in the store or you can purchase them here
I cook about 1 1/2 cups of cauliflower rice for about 3 minutes in our microwave. It really doesn’t take long!
Fix this rice however you would normally fix rice.
I dare you to give it a try. You could even give yourself time to get used to the change by adding in just a little bit of cauliflower rice when you make normal grain rice. Then slowly replace more of the grain rice with cauliflower until you’ve completely switched over.
What are some of your favorite rice dishes that you think this would work in? I’d love some new ideas!
It may sound strange, but Cauliflower Rice is a great alternative for rice in a low-carb, grain-free diet!
- 1 head cauliflower
- food processor
- 1 Ziploc Zip & Steam bag
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Wash and cut the cauliflower into small pieces.
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Put the cauliflower pieces into your food processor and process it until it is in rice-size pieces.
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Put the rice into a Ziploc Zip & Steam bag and cook in the microwave for about 3 minutes, or according to the directions on the bag.
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Serve the cauliflower rice as you would normally serve rice.
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