Cauliflower Fried “Rice” is a healthy kind of rice, it’s not the regular rice with a high starch, this particular rice is very rich. It is not as starchy and just as the name contains flower in it is a type of rice that reduces fat. In Cauliflower Fried “Rice”, cauliflower is “rice” in other words, grated or chopped to look and feel like rice grains. It is not rice but one will think he is eating rice but it’s actually cauliflower. So healthy. This rice is very easy to make, you just have to follow the instructions.
Ingredients for Cauliflower Fried “Rice”
These are the ingredients for cooking Cauliflower fried rice;
- 1 chicken breast
- 5-8 florets cauliflower (2½ cups “riced” cauliflower)
- 1 onion (chopped)
- Red bell pepper (chopped)
- Green bell pepper (chopped)
- Yellow bell pepper (chopped)
- 5 button mushrooms (chopped)
- Salt (to taste)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 4 cloves garlic
- Carrot Oil (for frying)
What you should know about the ingredients
These things are important to note about cauliflower fried rice;
- I enjoy preparing this with carrot oil because the beta carotene in it helps keep me young.
You can fry the ingredients with any keto-friendly oil (coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil) if you are on a strict keto-diet.
- Cauliflower is a vegetable, you can buy it in very big supermarkets in Nigeria.
- Oregano and cumin are seasonings like thyme and curry powder and they are also available in very big supermarkets in Nigeria.
- You only need very small quantities of green, red and yellow pepper. Please see the video below to see the quantities I used, they are not up to half of 1 pepper. Red and yellow bell peppers are available in big supermarkets in Nigeria.
- Wash all the vegetables before you start.
Before cooking Cauliflower Fried “Rice”
- “Rice” the cauliflower by grating it with a hand grater. You can also use a food processor to gently chop it but be careful because if you run the food processor for too long, the cauliflower will become mushy instead of like rice grains.
- Chop half of the onion into tiny pieces and the other half into bigger pieces.
- Chop the mushroom, garlic, red, green and yellow bell pepper into tiny pieces.
- Grind the oregano, thyme, cumin and black pepper with a dry mill or spice grinder.
- Blend the garlic and the half of the onion that you cut into tiny pieces.
- Cut the chicken breast into short thin stripes. See video below.
How to Prepare the Cauliflower Fried “Rice”
- Place the chicken into a bowl. Add the garlic and onion blend, the blend of seasonings and mix till everything is well incorporated.
- Cover the bowl with a plastic film and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour to marinate.
- After one hour, steam the chicken in a pot/frying pan without adding water or oil. Stir all the time so it will cook evenly.
- Dry fry for about 5 minutes or till each piece of chicken breast is pale all over. Remove from the pot/pan and set aside.
- Heat a tiny amount of the carrot oil in a frying pan or wok.
- When hot, add 1/3 of the chicken and stir till you see some browning on the sides of the chicken.
- Add 1/3 of the diced mushrooms, fry for 1 minute.
- Add 1/3 each of the diced onions, green, yellow and red peppers. Stir-fry for 1 minute.
- Add 1/3 of the “riced” cauliflower. Stir-fry for about 1 minute.
- Add salt if necessary and pour out to a bowl, pot or casserole.
- Repeat the process for the remaining batches of ingredients.
You can enjoy your delicious meal afterwards.
