Is it rice or cauliflower?
Is it rice or cauliflower? That is the $64,000 question. Cauliflower rice is so popular right now. At Trader Joe’s you can even buy it already cut like rice. Now who would possibly buy it that way when you can grate it yourself and save a few pennies or nickels and I have a problem with buying things already prepared, how much trouble is it to grate anyway?
I didn’t think I would ever like saying I’m 60; and I sure don’t think I’m going to like saying I’m 70 come November. I’ve decided that 70 is too old to give up anything you like. Why do I want to eat cauliflower rice instead of real rice and why shouldn’t I eat WHITE rice if I want that instead of brown rice. Don’t get me started on white bread. White bread is a must for certain things like a bologna sandwich. (I know, ya say that bologna isn’t good for you — but remember I’m almost 70 and I’m not giving up anything I really want.) Don’t get me wrong, we do eat a lot of healthy things; brown rice most of the time, good bakery French breads and baguettes (white) and we do eat lots of fish and vegetables.
I just don’t like being fooled by some things like spaghetti squash which is good if I’m eating it as a squash. Just don’t tell me it’s spaghetti and try and put pasta sauce and meatballs on top of the shredded squash. I have made some other 1/2-1/2 things like my zucchini and whole wheat pasta; don’t want a plate full of julienned zucchini pretending to be pasta. My recipe uses the zucchini as the main part of the recipe and I added about a quarter’s worth of whole wheat past to it to just help it from going flat in the bowl; it gave support to the zucchini and made a wonderful side dish.
How did I do my cauliflower rice? Well, I started off with a grater and that wasn’t that easy to do without scraping my fingers on the grater trying to make tiny bits of cauliflower. Then I remembered my favorite cooks tool and that is the Chef’n Veggie Chopper. Williams Sonoma use to sell these for $30 when I worked there and you can get the same thing on Amazon for $17. I even wrote an “ode” to my favorite tool back in 2009 and guess what? It was the Chef’n Veggie Chopper
BLAST FROM THE PAST: This Potato and Green Bean Salad will fit in with any menu you will be doing over the summer when you have friends and family over. Please give it a try.
Rice and cauliflower.
I started with the grater and after a few finger scrapes switched to my Chef’n Veggie Chopper.
Zest and juice the lemon and chop the parsley; set aside.
Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in skillet and cook the cauliflower for 6-7 minutes, just until it starts to brown a bit. Cook the white rice according to package using either water or chicken broth for cooking liquid.
Mix the cauliflower and rice together, add the lemon juice, zest and stir, then add in the parsley right before serving.
- 1/2 head cauliflower, grated (about 3 cups)
- 2 c. cooked white rice (or you could use brown rice.
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- 1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- Cook your white rice according to directions. I added 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Grate your cauliflower either using a chopper, food processor or grate by hand with box grater.
- Put the olive oil in a small skillet; when hot add in your cauliflower and cook for about 6-7 minutes until it is done and some is starting to turn a little golden.
- Stir the cooked rice into the cauliflower rice and add in the lemon juice, zest, parsley and salt and pepper to taste.
- Enjoy and not feel guilty. After all, your rice is half cauliflower.
- If I'm using white rice, I always use Uncle Ben's Converted Rice because it never gets mushy and sticks together. Use either water or chicken broth for the liquid when cooking rice.
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October 17, 2019 at 8:32 am[…] rice would make this a perfect Paleo meal. I decided to make a little cauliflower rice and mix it with a little white rice. I’ve never done that before with rice, but why not? This […]