Recipe: Cauliflower rice by Amanda Long

Cauliflower rice is a “thing” right now — “cauli-rice?” You see lots of cauliflower recipes: “mashed potato” cauliflower, cauliflower pizza crust, “bread sticks,” tortillas ... the list seems to go on.

One of my favorite things to do with cauliflower is roast it in the oven with a little olive oil and salt and pepper at 400 degrees for about 10 minute or until it gets browned — simple.

But the cauliflower “rice” was calling to me. It looked enticing and fluffy and said try me out! And I did. The texture is more like couscous, so maybe we should call it that instead, cauli-cous (I know now I’m getting out of hand), but then I’m not sure that’s as appealing to people. But it certainly is good and a great new way to change up this vegetable.

Now, yes, liking cauliflower is a prerequisite. After all, we are only changing its form, not its flavor.

We see a lot of these alternative cauliflower recipes mainly thanks to the paleo movement in which grains are out of the picture. And I love people have become so creative. Whether you need to cut something out or just want to eat more vegetables, the ideas are simply fantastic.

So, like I said, cauli-rice, while it tastes nothing like rice, it does provide as a great replacement for rice. You can top it with sauces and vegetables, serve it with a stir fry or beef broccoli! The possibilities are endless. And maybe, just maybe, you can convince your picky eaters to try it in this form. Sometimes it’s all about the form!

CAULIFLOWER RICE

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower

1/4 cup broth

salt and pepper

Instructions

Break the head of cauliflower up into sections. Add it to a food processor and pulse until the cauliflower is crumbly rice-like texture. You may also use a box grater to grate the cauliflower into a bowl.

Remove any large chunks that didn’t process well.

Add the cauli-rice to a pot and lightly sauté it. Don’t brown it; I accidentally did that and it tastes good, but it won’t look like rice (if that matters to you).

Add a little broth to the pan, cover, and steam on low for about 5 minutes.

You can sauté onion, garlic or other aromatics to the pan before you sauté the cauli-rice to build on flavor, depending on your dish.

Notes

I made some cilantro-lime — I squeezed in a lime and tossed in some chopped cilantro and then steamed the cauli-rice.

Amanda Long is passionate about cooking and posts her favorite recipes at www.stuffurface.wordpress.com. She is also the owner of Chive Cooking.