Low carb & paleo friendly Mediterranean style Cauliflower Rice – make it in 20 minutes or less for a healthy & filling side dish! Vegan + Whole30 + Gluten Free

Do you ever just stare at a word for too long and think ‘well that can’t be right’?

To quote my husband (except he said this about the word licence last week and I’m still laughing about it: The word {cauliflower} is blowing my mind right now.

Please tell me you also do this. We can bond over the absurdity of the English language while eating some of this Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice, yeah?

Making of: Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice – Paleo & Low Carb

All in all this recipe is pretty simple requiring only 8 essential ingredients and can be made in about 15 minutes or less. The majority of the work will be spent prepping the cauliflower, but you can read more tips on that below.

The ingredients here are very simple:

• Cauliflower Rice – our main star
• Onions + Garlic – base flavours
• Lemon + Zest – for a little zing
• Parsley + Red Chili Flakes – depth and spice
• Pine nuts – adds a layer of crunch

On its own this dish is simple, healthy, zesty and filling!

How to Make Cauliflower Rice

By far the fastest/easiest way to make riced cauliflower is with a food processor. Mike & I recently moved into a larger place with more kitchen space so I caved and bought one. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with it now.

It takes about two minutes to cut up the cauliflower into small chunks and then drop it through the graters. If you don’t have the grating blade you can also make this by pulsing it up with the standard S-blade.

How to Make Cauliflower Rice without a food processor?

No worries if you don’t have a food processor! You can still do this a couple different ways.

Chop up the cauliflower florets into little bite sized pieces and pulse them in a standard blender. The caveat here is that you usually need to make this in batches to evenly blitz up the cauliflower but it’s still a fairly easy process altogether.

That all being said, you absolutely do not need to invest in any large, expensive kitchen appliances to make this dish. For years I’ve been making my own cauliflower rice with nothing more than a cheese grater. Instead of cutting up your cauliflower head into small pieces just chop it up in half or into quarters and grate it using the larger holes on your standard box grater. It takes a little more elbow grease but really isn’t difficult.

And of course if you’re short on time or just want something fast, easy and without loads of clean up you can just go ahead and buy pre riced cauliflower.

Tips for Making this Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice

A few things to keep in mind while you make this:

• Make sure your pan is hot enough. You’ll want to aim for a medium-high/high heat.
• Use a large enough pan to prevent overcrowding. Too much crowding will lead to a mushy rice.
• This cooks up fast! The longer you cook the mushier it will become and the stronger the smell. Have your ingredients ready to add in when you need it.

And that’s it!

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Recipe

Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice

Yield: 4 servings Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes

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Low carb & paleo friendly Mediterranean Cauliflower Rice - make it in 20 minutes or less for a healthy & filling side dish! Vegan + Whole30 + Gluten Free

Ingredients

• 1 medium head cauliflower, about about 3 cups riced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• zest from half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons pinenuts
• 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
• fresh parsley , chopped

Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.

Instructions

1. Prep the cauliflower: Remove the cauliflower leaves and stems and chop into cite sized florets. Push the cauliflower florets into a running food processor with the grating attachment.
2. Alternatively, rice the cauliflower using a box grater.
3. Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet. When the oil is hot add the onion and sauté for 4-5 minutes on a medium heat or until they become soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
4. Add the cauliflower to the skillet. Stir to mix everything together well. 
5. Turn the heat up to high and add the lemon, zest, pine nuts and chili flakes.  Cook for another minute. The high heat will draw out excess moisture in the cauliflower so it doesn't get too mushy.
6. Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley. Taste and season with more salt as needed - serve warm and enjoy! 

Notes

Optional adds-ins: chopped sun dried tomatoes, feta, chopped basil.

Nutrition Information

Yield: 4 Calories: 71Sodium: 38mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 3g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.

© A Saucy Kitchen, Sarah Nevins

Cuisine: Mediterranean

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