Allergy Free Menu Planners

This may not be new to some of you but I wanted to post it for those of you who don’t know about the wonders of cauliflower and how it makes amazing rice!  I first saw the idea to make it at GrainFreeFoodies where Sierra makes an awesome looking Fried Rice with it.  She also recently posted a recipe for Spanish Rice which looks to die for.

Then I saw a simpler version at Mark’s Daily Apple where he flavors it with garlic and green onions.  Most recently, Elana did a posting about it as well where she sautes it with onion and celery.  So, you can see it is just as versatile as plain rice.

You can also cook it a couple different ways.  Many of the above recipes saute the cauliflower rice after the onions or other veggies are cooked, but you can also steam the cauliflower rice by itself like Sierra does in the Fried Rice recipe.

Because I usually make it with another dish like  Chicken Curry, I usually keep the rice very simple and let the flavors of the sauce spice it up.  So I really just add salt, pepper and a little butter or coconut oil to mine.  In the above recipe, I did the same thing – however, it was a little plain by itself with the chicken and wax beans.  So if you plan on making the cauliflower rice as a dish by itself, I would recommend adding some sauteed onions or garlic to it.  Another idea would be to add some pecans or raisins to make a rice pilaf dish.

So, here’s my very simple Cauliflower Rice recipe:

1 head of cauliflower (you can use a hand grater, the grating devise on your food processor, or simply process it with the main blade in a food processor)

salt and pepper

butter or coconut oil

Steps:

1.  Chop up the cauliflower into medium sized chunks.  Choose your method – hand grater or food processor.  I personally use the main blade on my food processor, but I think the grating devise would work great.  I process it in batches – maybe 1 or 2 cups at at time.  You basically want to process it only just enough to make it into small rice-sized pieces.  Don’t over-process it otherwise it will turn to mush.  Continue method until all the cauliflower is grated or cut up into small kernels.

2.  Place chopped cauliflower rice into steamer basket.  Bring to boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.  Steam for 5-8 minutes, or until cauliflower is cooked through, but still retains the rice texture.  Drain water and then add salt, pepper and butter or oil to season.

3.  Enjoy with Chicken Curry or any other kind of dish you would enjoy plain rice with.

Enjoy!