The Cauliflower craze - Chipotle Rice

 

Ok, so I`ve seen recipes with cauliflower masquerading as a pizza crust, mashed potatoes, and now rice. Secretly, I want to try all of those recipes, but I think I prefer that someone else make them for me and not tell me until I decide I like it :) Unfortunately, I have to not tell my husband and see if he likes it instead.  This `rice`recipe though, was something I was interested in trying as, once again, I wanted to have blackened chicken for dinner.

What you need: 

1 medium-large head of cauliflower, fresh
1 tsp minced garlic (1-2 cloves)
2-3 diced scallions
1 large lime
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp olive oil


First, chop the cauliflower into small florets, whatever your blender/chopper will handle. You may need to do this in batches, mine took 3 and I ended up with leftover florets anyway for another meal.

Rinse and dry your cauliflower and then put it into your chopper and pulse until you have something that Looks like rice. If you have a powerful one, it may take one time, or like mine, about 5 or 6 times. Repeat until you are done.


Some of mine still ended up larger than I would have liked, so I just picked them out.

Put your oil in a pan and heat up on medium. Add the scallions and garlic, cook until soft. If you use pre-minced garlic, this will not take as long as fresh garlic.

 

 

 

 



Add the cauliflower and turn the heat up to high. (My range required this to cook it, you know yours best, so adjust accordingly if you start accidently searing it instead).

 

 

After you have mixed everything together thoroughly, cover and once a minute for the first 3 or 4, stir well. After that, stir every 10-20 seconds until it starts to get faintly brown or crispy. 

 

 

 

 

Add the salt, to taste, but about 1/2 - 1 tsp, juice of a lime and the roughly chopped Cilantro. If you don`t let it cool a little, your cilantro will wilt immediately, so you may need to add a bit extra.

 

 







You can serve this as a side dish, or make it with the blackened chicken and throw it all into a Tortilla for a `Chipotle` like effect. If I had been planning on it, rather than spur of the moment, I would also have added in peppers and onions to it, maybe some black beans. You can see the general idea though. It was also great as a cold wrap for lunch the next day!

 

 

Overall, I would be fine with having cauliflower rice instead of real rice. At least in this dish. I don`t think it tasted like rice, exactly, but it didn`t really taste like cauliflower either, especially with more cilantro or lime added.  Give it a try, it may surprise you, like it did me. And check out the original recipe, there are lots of great recipes on the Skinny Taste website!