Thursday, May 27, 2021

Ricing cauliflower

Last year, Older Daughter introduced me to the wonders of riced cauliflower as a low-cal substitute for rice.

Apparently riced cauliflower is available in the frozen foods section of grocery stores. "Riced" in this case merely means finely chopped up, and since cauliflower tends to be on the crumbly side anyway, it's easy to "rice" it with a food processor.

So I've taken to purchasing a case at a time of cauliflower and ricing it myself. This week I went into the city and came back with (among much else) a dozen heads of cauliflower.

The first step is to trim off the leaves...

...then cut the cauliflower into chunks.

After that, I chop it into smaller pieces, and put it in the food processor.

What I like to do is freeze the riced cauliflower in two-cup increments for meal convenience. With a dozen heads to process, I got into a rhythm. That included pre-opening a bunch of Ziploc bags, ready to fill.

As the bowl got full with the riced product, I stopped to scoop it into bags.

It tends to be a messy process, with crumbles of cauliflower everywhere, but at least it's not dirty or greasy.

I didn't count how many bags I ended up with, but it was dozens. I flattened these and popped them in the freezer.

They're the handiest thing in the world for a fast meal. My favorite is a quickie stir-fry with meat, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower. The result is filling and low in calories. Who could ask for more?

7 comments:

  1. I have always wanted to make it myself, because we use it a lot. Think I’ll give it a try, and Thanks!

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  2. Glad to know it does not have to be blanched or pre-cooked before freezing, for sure will give this a try.

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  3. One of our local groceries also sells cauliflower crepe. Basically the same process but ground to a liquid paste type of texture. My wife makes a potato salad using the creme as a Mayo substitute. I can hardly tell the difference. Dad who would never agree to anything like that, has no idea and always asks her to bring it to family cookouts.

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  4. It has become quite a trend. That said, it seems like a marginally valuable use for cauliflower (which I tend to detest in its naturally headed state).

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  5. This is awesome...I love cauliflower...I will try it....
    Thanks to Older daughter from this old grammy from NC
    Love from NC

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  6. I love this idea. Did you use the rice cauliflower in with the stirfry or as a base for the stirfry? Jenny

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    1. It can be either/or. I tend to make a personal stirfry without the rice (just the cauliflower), but nothing says you can't use it as an additive to a rice-based stirfry.

      - Patrice

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