How to Make Healthy Fried Rice Using Cauliflower
Like fried rice? Well, who doesn’t?
But that bloated feeling you get when you’re done?
Feh!
Here’s a version that looks and tastes like the real thing: Cauliflower Fried Rice.
That’s right. Cauliflower instead of rice. And it’s even easier to make than the real thing.
Comfort Food that Doesn't Make you Uncomfortable
Something about a hot bowl of fried rice. It’s so dang good.
But when you swap out the rice for cauliflower, you get a dish that:
- Fills you up without making you bloated.
- Goes amazingly well with other Chinese Food.
- Lasts for days as leftovers (unlike rice that gets hard and inedible).
Add this to your repertoire, people.
It took me four tries to get it just right.
Follow the simple instructions below, and you’ll nail it on the first try.
It’s Cauliflower Fried Rice.
Enjoy.
Video demo: How to “Rice” Cauliflower with Your Vitamix
Recipe
Cauliflower Fried Rice
A lean body version of fried rice. Filling comfort food that doesn't make you full.
Carrots, Cauliflower, Onion, Soy Sauce,Ingredients:
- cauliflower - 1 head, chopped
- baby carrots - 1 cup, chopped (128 g)
- edamame - 1 cup (155 g)
- OTHER VEGGIES: peas/corn/broccoli - 1/2 cup (90 g)
- onion - 1/2 a whole, chopped
- oil - 2 Tbsp. (30 mL)
- soy sauce - 3 Tbsp. (45 mL)
- (optional) rice wine vinegar - 1 Tbsp. (15 mL)
Instructions:
PREP:
- Chop cauliflower into rice-like pieces. (We use my our Vitamix for this)
- Chop carrots into dime-sized pieces.
COOK:
- Place a large skillet on medium heat.
- Add half the oil.
- Cook carrots until decently soft (5 minutes or so).
- Add rest of oil.
- Add other non-cauliflower vegetables.
- Sautee for another few minutes until completely cooked.
- Add the chopped cauliflower, soy sauce and optional extras.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- Stop cooking after five minutes.
- For real. Stop.
- Unless you want soggy city.
- And they don’t serve rice there.
- They only serve soggy vegetables.
- Serve with nothing else.
- Be happy.
Useful tips for Cauliflower Fried Rice
If you're adding any extra protein (like tofu or a Beyond Meat-type of thing) cook this first. Why? Cooking these produces a lot of moisture. Moisture you want to keep out of the end product. Nobody likes a soggy mess.
When they're done, put the protein off to the side. We'll add it back to the mix later.
Other non-cauliflower vegetables go next, together.
Chop the cauliflower into rice-sized pieces. You can use a knife, a grater, or take the shortcut like us and use your Vitamix (to chop the cauliflower) to chop it all in three seconds.
Here's the key to making this recipe work: DO NOT OVERCOOK THE CAULIFLOWER.
You basically just want to make the cauliflower hot and soften it up a bit.
Getting to the top of the cauliflower fried rice mountain only takes about five or six minutes. And once you're at the top, the ledge is steep.
I mean, one step past "done" and the dish is dead.
You'll think adding more oil and cooking it longer will make it crispy or closer to the correct rice texture. Nope.
After five or six minutes, more cooking means more soggy. Soggy cauliflower fried rice leads to a very unimpressed first-time taster. And it may ruin them forever.
So add your sauce, heat it up and be done. The natural texture of cauliflower is like cooked rice.
Don't be afraid to stuff your face. Cauliflower Fried Rice is incredibly low in calories (not that anybody is counting). And, it's full of vitamins, nutrients, blah blah blah.
Go make this tonight! And don't forget to show off your work using #lifeisnoyoke !
Does anyone know if you can Rice the cauliflower in the vitamin and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few days before cooking? Like if I prep on a Sunday and want to cook it later in the week on Wednesday? Not sure how long I have before using it.
You absolutely can do that! It will stay for a couple days assuming it’s covered. We do this with our detox salad, too. These are the best food containers for this type of thing
Made it, it was delicious….but using the vitamix for the cauliflower didn’t work for me…first i tried it just like the video (watched it 3 times first) and none of the cauliflower broke down, so then i used the wet method and it made it too small and mushy while still having florets as well..next time i will use the food processor its way easier and makes it perfectly. I dried the cauliflower the best i could for a week with papertowels in the fridge before using. The smallness i think was the biggest issue and it was mushy in the fry, but still good, it’s still going to all get eaten. It was super easy to make something so healthy with items on hand, thank you.
Easiest chopping in my vitamix:
fill container with cauli chunks.
Fill with water to above the chunks. Leave a bit of space at the top.
Run, gradually increasing speed, but not too much.
The cauli will break down into rice sized pieces. Run until the “rice” is the size you like. No tamping, no extra cycles (unless you have a huge cauliflower or are cooking for dozens…). Don’t over blend. Better to check a couple of times for “rice” size and run again if needed. Strain the cauli from the water. And there you have it.
Thanks Mary. Yeah, that’s a wet chop technique.
With most vegetables, that’s the best approach. Quickest and fewest amount of batches required. With the dry cop, you’ll have to do four or five chopping sessions (as you can see in the video).
i would try that recipe …..
You mean you should try that recipe? 🙂
TheBomb.com
As a calorie counter, this is an excellent recipe to eat when you are feeling really hungry and getting impatient for a cheat day. So much food! I’m pumped for the egg drop recipe!
Def. This is THE non-cheat-day way to stuff your face.
That looks really good! Any hints on how to chop cauliflower in the Vitamix? That’s the one food I’ve never had any luck with chopping. I can’t seem to get uniformly-sized pieces.
Yeah, I probably should dedicate a whole post to that question.
Been asked a lot.
Basically, start with tennis ball-sized chunks of cauliflower. Big enough so they don’t rest below the blades. But not too big where they can’t move around.
Fill the container half-way or less. Expect to run a few half-full cycles.
Get the tamper. Just putting it in while it’s running makes it all distribute evenly.
Run on variable speed 1. Use the tamper to push stuff on sides down. Stop after 5 seconds or so.
Majority of the cauliflower will be perfectly chopped. Dump everything in a bowl and pick out any large pieces.
Repeat from the beginning placing any hand-picked pieces at the top of the next batch.
Let me know how that works. 🙂