Cauliflower Rice

Cafe Society
1

I’ve always liked cauliflower - raw, roasted, steamed… yum!. So it was unsurprising I enjoyed it when I first tried cauliflower rice (or is it better called riced cauliflower?) My first experience was with a friend who started the Keto diet. It was a package she threw in the microwave. Not bad.

When she came to our place for dinner, I searched keto recipes and found this one. Seriously wow! I can’t stop making this.

Do you have tips for actually ricing the cauliflower? I use a potato masher as the recipe above suggests. Works fine, but there must be a better way - it’s a lot of effort and I’m not entirely happy with the non-homogenous results.

Oh, and what are your favourite recipes?

2

I prefer to avoid all the ricing and just buy cauliflower riced and frozen. But here is a recipe that is worth a try: Riced Cauliflower Tacos.

Full disclosure: we make our cauliflower tacos by roasting the florets after seasoning them with taco seasoning. We use this recipe including the Romesco sauce, which is an essential accompaniment. But I don’t see any reason why using riced cauliflower won’t be just as good.

3

I do something similar, except I prefer to use cauliflower rice that hasn’t been frozen as it seems to turn out less watery. I spread it out on a baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, pepper, cumin and smoked paprika and roast at 375 til tender. It makes a shockingly good substitute for spanish rice (at least to me, someone who doesn’t naturally enjoy cauliflower at all…)

4

We just run it through our old food processor with the grater attachment.

5

I’ll give that a try - sounds promising!

6

We have cauliflower “fried rice” as a side. I love the nutty flavor and texture of the rice. I generally have to add an extra seasoning packet to give it a similar flavor to regular rice and I scramble the eggs separate.

For me it’s a quick weeknight side to go with pork steak.

7

If you don’t buy it already riced, you need to make sure it’s frozen before you rice it. Made that mistake one time, and super mushy nasty rice was the result. I really like it in my low-cal stirfry, as long as I don’t end up smooshing the rice too much. Then it just becomes mush.

8

I’m planning on doing this, adding some spices, maybe some diced carrots, then cooking it in my air fryer.

9

Mrs. L buys the frozen stuff, microwaves it, melts gouda in it for a kind of cheesy faux rice.
I bet something with crunch would be good in there. Maybe some walnuts? We tend to skip actual rice (calories, carbs) but riced cauli in a strong flavored sauce like Tikka Masala is a good sub.

Mrs. L asked for the specific tool as a gift. We didn’t think it worked well but the suggestion downthread is to freeze the cauli first. Hmm, need to try that.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ricer&ref=nb_sb_noss

I’m trying to make cauliflower tots. Aldi had some and the outside texture was good but the inside was mushy. Green Giant makes some* that are better but more expensive.

Which brings me back to the ricer…you can rice lots of different vegetables. *Green Giant also makes tots with riced broccoli and cheese. And if you have a Sprouts market, they sell riced broccoli in the frozen section; I think it has more flavor. We’ve been trying various tots, attempting to make our own, etc.

My latest was like this.

Take a baking dish, spray with PAM

Combine egg with panko; press into dish to depth of a quarter inch

Make “filling” with parmesan, sharp cheddar, riced cauli, minced or dehydrated onion, panko, eggs, opt parsley flakes, kosher Salt, coarse ground black pepper, garlic powder.

Press mixture atop panko in pan to depth of quarter inch

Top that with quarter inch of panko/egg mixture

Non stick spray the top.

Cut squares in the pan but don’t remove…leave in pan, freeze

When ready, spray basket, carefully remove frozen squares from dish, air fry. Dip in pizza squeeze or your favorite sauce.

Notes: the original plan was to make the “filling,” freeze in ice cube trays, pop out, dip in egg and coat with panko. That’s messy, labor intensive, and I’m not good at it.

10

Oh, that tool is for extruding cooked (softened) potatoes. Cauliflower has a completely different consistency. You want a grater.

11

Amazon brings up many similar results for “cauliflower ricer.” I didn’t know much about it TBH and she didn’t say I got the wrong thing, so shhhhhhh! Don’t give me away.

But you can buy it already riced, which is the way we like to go.

12

I was grilling steaks for dinner yesterday and I came up with a nice cauliflower rice side to go with the steak.

I cooked some sliced mushrooms and a little diced onion and garlic in butter. When they were softening up I added a package of pre-riced cauliflower and mixed it in.

I added some thyme, black pepper, a dollop of “better than bullion” beef stock, a splash of red wine, Worcestershire, and soy sauce. I cooked it uncovered a little longer to reduce the liquid a bit, then I mixed in a little bit of flour / water mix to thicken. Also a couple tablespoons of sour cream.

13

I have not tried ricing it, but hitting softened florets with a stick blender makes decent ersatz mashed potatoes for the lower carb crowd.

Usually, I’ve been taking florets and chopped stem pieces, and laying them in the base of the roasting pan in which I’m roasting a whole chicken above. Toss the cauliflower when you go to turn the chicken over, or take the foil off of it (I use Cooks Illustrated’s recipe; but at 475, or a lower temperature if it still smokes.) Cauliflower gets browned and caramelized wonderfully.

EDIT: I’m going to try that, the next time I sear off some steaks, @solost