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Alternatives to cauliflower rice


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I completed the Whole30 in October, and I have generally stuck to a less strict version of it since then. I've been trying a lot of paleo recipes, and I've noticed a lot of them call for cauliflower rice. The problem is that I hate cauliflower. I thought it would taste better if I cooked with other flavors, such as in a "fried rice" recipe (blended in food processor, cooked in fish sauce, coconut aminos, and bacon). It doesn't. I just can't hide that yucky overpowering taste no matter how I cook it or what I cook it in.

 

Are there alternatives to cauliflower rice? What other veggies can I blend up in the food processor to get that rice-like consistency? I thought about using broccoli (I love broccoli), but I'm not sure it would have the same consistency.

 

It seems that cauliflower rice is considered a "paleo staple," so the fact that it's one of a the very few foods I dislike really limits my options.

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Broccoli works!

 

You could also make zoodles out of zucchini, sweet potato, beets, rutabaga, potato, winter squash, or use a mash of root veggies as a foundational base in lieu of "rice."

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I've never found "ricing" cauliflower to be worth the effort and I've been eating Whole30-style almost 5 years. If you don't like something, move on to the next thing. You will never run out of new things to try even if you never eat anything like cauliflower rice.

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Use any veggie you like. Could be roasted spaghetti squash, mashed potatoes, cubed and roasted sweet potatoes, microwaved frozen broccoli ... whatever sounds good. Years before Whole30 came into my life, I used to chop up veggies for a curry and once it was simmering and almost ready I would realize I had forgotten to make rice (again). I found I didn't need it at all. You probably don't either.

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I ran across a recipe for plantain "rice" that looked interesting. I'm intrigued by the idea of broccoli rice.

 

For most recipes, the rice component is just there as a sauce mop. Things like curry can just be eaten like soup (that's what we do) or you can increase the other vegetables in the recipe so that there are more things for the sauce to cling to.

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I happen to love cauli rice, it's one of my favourite things to eat.  However I absolutely LOATHE shredding up the cauliflower so I have it maybe once every few months.  If it's a red sauce type thing that wanted to be put over cauli rice I usually just add a tonne of extra veggies and eat the "sauce" like a chili.  This is typically a result of being too lazy to create a base for the sauce to sit on.

 

We eat a lot of green beans, asparagus, brussel sprouts (you can shred these with either a knife or food processor and they hold up VERY well for "rice" textured dishes), roasted brocoli, roasted beets.

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I don't particularly like (cooked) cauliflower, either.

 

I gave up trying to recreate the texture of rice--it made me want real rice. Now, I use spaghetti squash, shredded potato or braised greens as a bed for saucy foods. Or nothing.

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