Let me introduce you to cauliflower rice. This amazing replacement for traditional rice is a staple in the paleo and low carb world, and for good reason.
What I love about cauliflower rice is that it is so quick and easy to make, the flavour is amazing and you can adjust it’s taste to suit the dish that it is going with.
Why cauliflower rice?
The nutritional profile of cauliflower is more robust than white rice. It has significant amounts of vitamin C (46mg), vitamin K (20mg), folate (57mg), choline (45mg), calcium 22mg), magnesium (15mg), potassium (303mg), plus all the other nutrients in trace amounts. The major benefit of cauliflower is that it only has 5gm of carbohydrates per 1 cup serve, compared to 44gm of carbohydrates in white rice.
White rice does contain a variety of vitamins and minerals, most notably being 91mg of folate and 11.9mg of selenium per cup. It’s carbohydrate content is what lets it down. When a food is high in simple carbohydrates like white rice is, the food is broken down very quickly in the blood stream to glucose. This raises the blood glucose levels in a person very quickly. The body doesn’t like to have high blood glucose, because to simplify it, glucose makes the blood sticky. Our bodies are clever and it’s natural compensatory mechanism is to release insulin to collect the blood sugar and to store it as body fat for safe keeping.
What about brown rice you ask? Brown rice does contain 45gm of carbohydrates per cup, but it does have a little more fiber (4gm) which will slow down the digestion of the rice so that blood sugars don’t rise so rapidly. However, there is still the 45gm of carbohydrates that is has to process.
So back to the cauliflower rice. You just have to roughly chop the cauliflower.
Then pop it into the food processor for about 20 seconds until it becomes a rice-like consistency.
Heat some coconut oil or butter into the fry pan (depending on what flavour you want the rice to take on) and stir fry it for a couple of minutes until it is warm and tender. Season it with some sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. I like to stir through some finely chopped fresh herbs to boost it’s flavour.
I really encourage you to try this one, and I am sure you won’t go back to plain old white rice again.
- • 1 cauliflower
- • 1 tablespoon butter, ghee or coconut oil
- • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper freshly cracked
- Cut the leaves from the cauliflower and discard.
- Roughly chop the cauliflower florets and stalks
- Place the cauliflower into the food processor and chop for about 20 seconds, or until it forms a rice-like consistency.
- Heat the oil or butter in a large fry pan. Add the cauliflower and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir fry the cauliflower for a few minutes until it is tender and warm.
- Optional – stir through some finely chopped fresh herbs to match the flavour of your meal