I’ve had a few people ask me now, “How on earth can you completely give up carbs???!!!”
“Don’t you love rice? Noodles? BREAD?!”
My answer usually sounds like this, “Of course I love them all! That’s how I got into this shape in the first place!!!!!”
To be honest, I haven’t been on a very strict Paleo diet. I do occasionally have the bread, rice and always the noodles.
However, most of the time, I’m pretty good.
Substitution is the key.
Thank goodness there’s PALEO RICE!! And it’s nothing new age or fancy.
It’s just steamed/boiled cauliflower that’s been blended in the food processor with a little sprinkle of salt.
There’s nothing more to it. I love cauliflower, and luckily for me, it’s Paleo approved!
To be honest, the first time I had it was when Sporkette threw a curry night. Whilst everyone else had their sub-standard rice, we had the high quality, wonderful tasting Cauliflower Rice!
Even if you haven’t jumped on this diet, give this a shot. Trust me, it’s so delicious!
Paleo Cauliflower “Rice” Recipe
Ingredients:
Cauliflower
Water
Sprinkle of salt
Cracked Black Pepper
*Preferably a Food Processor to blend the Cauliflower
Procedure:
Cut the cauliflower up into small florets. This makes the overall blending process go faster and more efficient!
You can either steam or boil the cauliflowers. I tend to boil mine (just lightly blanch as I don’t want them to soften too much and I want to keep the texture of the cauliflower intact).
After about 3-4 minutes (do a test by tasting to see if it’s cooked), turn the fire off and drain the cauliflower.
Set aside to cool for 4-5 minutes (alternatively, you could shock the cauliflower in ice water to stop the cooking process).
In a food processor, blend the cauliflower finely (but not for too long or you might end up with puree instead). You want the consistency of granules.
Set aside and serve hot with a sprinkle of salt or cracked black pepper!
I usually find that I don’t need to flavour it with salt or pepper, as the natural sweetness of the cauliflower really comes out in this preparation.
I tend to eat it on its own as a side dish, as a “rice” substitute with Asian dishes, as a salad, the possibilities are endless.
Stay tuned to find out what more you could do with this recipe!!
I’m thinking of trying this with carrots and broccoli 😉
So tell me, would you try this recipe out?
Ah! I was totally planning on trying to make this last night before I headed off to the airport, but decided to make soba noodles instead…will have to try it when I get back 😉
Fail!!! Hahahaha.. enjoy your trip!!!
These were delish! Better than rice itself, if I may say. 😀
You can so say so… 🙂
better than risotto?
YES!! 🙂
Yeah, I love cauliflower and it’s definitely got more flavour than rice. (I still like to eat rice as well though!)
Me too 🙂 But this cauliflower rice is so guiltless 🙂
I don’t know where to start first …
– I’ve been meaning to try this for ages, it seems to be popping up everywhere I look at the moment (see, I don’t do bandwagons at all 🙂 )
– how brilliant is the little processor?! I may or may not have done a happy dance the first time I chopped an onion in mine.
– carrots and broccoli, you’re a genius!
Hahahaha.. I AM AMAZING!!! Lol.. yes the food processor is really cool isn’t it? Although it’s a killer when I do big batches 🙁
looks like cous cous!
And taste nothing like it 🙂
Wow – very impressive of you. I know a few people trying the paelo diet but personally I just would not have the will power. I love my carbs way too much.
I do too, but with a healthy middle balance, I get to live on and off the bandwagon for most of the time 🙂
We’ve been doing this for a no carb diet. I actually really like it as mash too. It doesnt get exactly the same as potato but it comes close enough to trick me 🙂
Oooo… mash cauliflower? MUST EAT IT!
This dish is very much famous among South India. But they don’t know that it’s a Paleo recipe.
It really is delicious!
Yes. It’s very delicious and it smells real good.
From afar, it looks like quinoa!
Hahaha… it does.. but taste much nicer!
Hmm, I’ve actually been eating cauliflower rice for a few years now, but I have it raw 🙂 Most of the time I add in a tiny handful of pine nuts, cashews, or goat cheese (SO GOOD) too. Mmm, I need to make it again soooooon!
You have??? You are fashionable!!
I know. I’m such a caulifashionista.
Nice word. So stealing it. Stolen…
Been eating quite a lot of cauliflower lately, going to try this dish, looks really good 🙂
It’s such a nice vegetable!!!
Mmm cauliflower:) Have you seen the recipes for cauliflower base pizza? Somehow you make a dough out of it.
I haven’t had cauliflower rice, but instead I just mash it up as I have no food processor. For lunch I then have mashed vegetables (one of which is cauliflower) with pasta sauce:)
Oooo… must research that now!!!
I love Cauliflower so this is perfect and it’s GUILT FREE 😀 woo hoo! I’m definitely going to give this a go! Really need to lose some weight ~
I want to be healthy too 🙂 Hence the start to this.. the weightloss was a bonus!
Mmm, I think I would actually try this recipe out once I found some time on my hands again… and carb-less diet is pretty hard so this definitely sounds like a simple and easy alternative 🙂
It takes less than 10 minutes! DO IT!!!!!!!
Wow! You have an amazing willpower! I can never go too long without carbs. The cauliflower rice’s a good idea! 😀 I’ve tried using it as a cheesy mash (instead of potatoes) and it turned out pretty good!
I don’t know about willpower, since I keep falling off the bandwagon!! Hehehe
OMG !! This so called ‘Rice’ is definitely worth a try !! Thanks for sharing !! Love it 😛
Indeed it is 🙂
mmmm…you had me hooked on this during our xmas feast. They went so well with the pork!!!
EVERYTHING goes well with pork Adrian!!!
Thank you for the recipe. For some reason I went the other way around – whizzed up the cauliflower raw first and then quickly boiled it – still worked and tasted great.
Was it messier? hahahah
I gotta making this thing. You guys keep feeding it to me and I don’t actually mind it.
YES MAKE IT!
Very cool. I’ve been seeing references to cauliflower rice, thanks for the detailed how-to.
You are welcome 🙂
Good recipe, my girlfriend had to cut the carbs so it was pretty cool to replace the rice. You can also do a “risotto” by using grated raw coliflower and of course cook it less time than regular rice, it’s really good !
Ooh! Thanks for the risotto idea! I’ve used it for fried “rice” too and it works a treat!
Thanks for posting this!! I’ve been looking for a rice substitute for this CrossFit Paleo challenge and it looks like I’ve found it!! Thank you!!
You are welcome!
My mom used to make me this all the time, before I ever knew what a paleo diet was. It is delicious and healthy for you. I think this should be a recipe for every ones cookbook.
Fantastic rice recipe post and absolutely stunning photos, really can’t wait to try it.
Thanks Rachel! Let me know how you go!
This is truly amazing. Imma try this! It looks like it’ll taste good. I’m about to embark a paleo diet and I researched to see what can I substitute rice for and bang! Here you are. I’m trying this as soon as I buy my food processor, plz email me if u gave any other substitute for bread
Aww thank you. I didn’t manage to find any substitution for bread – but head on down to any of the Paleo recipe sites, they are amazing!