Cauliflower Fried Rice

This looks and tastes so much like real fried rice, I forgot for a moment that I was writing up a CAULIFLOWER Fried Rice recipe!

77% less calories, 89% less carbs, astonishingly similar mouthfeel as real fried rice and definitely right up there with flavour. This is one that even Cauliflower Rice cynics will love!

Cauliflower Fried Rice

Yes, it really does taste like real fried rice.

Cauliflower rice cynics, I’m talking to YOU!

And that includes me. It took me many years before I got on board the cauliflower rice train. And even once I was on board, it took me many months before I was happy enough with cauliflower fried rice to share the recipe with you.

Here are the top tips I’ve accumulated for wickedly good cauliflower rice:

• cook it like real fried rice. Hard and fast. Keep the cauliflower crisp-tender, don’t let it get mushy and wet!
• A great sauce is essential. Disguise the cauliflower flavour!
• The cauliflower has to be rice-size. As opposed to tiny crumbly couscous size. Nobody wants mushy cauliflower-couscous!

What goes in Cauliflower Fried Rice

• Cauliflower rice – best to either make your own or buy fresh pre-prepared. Frozen thawed will also work, but is a bit more watery. Drain it well and dry as much as you can, even go as far as squeezing out excess liquid (but note that you will lose volume by doing this and you still need 4 cups).
• Ham or bacon – goes a long to add a great flavour base! Can be skipped to make it meat free
• Frozen mixed vegetables – I use frozen for convenience, and because I totally buy into the whole “snap frozen” thing. Feel free to substitute with any diced vegetables, frozen or fresh
• Mirin or Chinese cooking wine – this is key in this sauce, to give it depth of flavour and complexity, making it extra tasty. Substitute with dry sherry or cooking sake. For a non alcoholic sub, add chicken stock powder (granulated chicken bouillon);
• Oyster Sauce adds a good back of sweet-savoury flavour. The only appropriate substitute I can think of is Hoisin, though you will get a faint fie spice flavour (very nice though!)

How to make Cauliflower Fried Rice

Here’s how you make it – just like normal fried rice, cooked hard and fast over high heat!

How to serve Cauliflower Fried Rice

Serve this as a tasty low-carb side dish, or as a meal in itself. Cauliflower Fried Rice packs in a serious load of vegetables, and very small amount of carbs. So while I’d never recommend normal fried rice as a meal, Cauliflower Fried Rice IS a healthy, satisfying complete meal in itself!

While I usually use plain rice or (when I’m trying to “be good”) plain Cauliflower Rice for saucy stir fries and curries, I like to serve fried rice alongside other Asian and Asian-esque dishes that aren’t saucy. Here are a few ideas.

Dishes to serve with Cauliflower Fried Rice

Char Siu (Chinese Barbecue Pork)

Chinese Chicken (Char Siu!)

Chinese Crispy Pork Belly

Sticky Baked Chinese Chicken Wings

Potstickers (Chinese Pan Fried Dumplings!)

Grilled Marinated Thai Chicken (Gai Yang)

Japanese GYOZA (Dumplings)

Vietnamese Caramel Pork

Have a browse through all my Asian recipes for more ideas!

So tell me, Cauliflower Rice cynics, have I convinced you to give this a go?? 😉 – Nagi x

Watch how to make it

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Cauliflower Fried Rice

Author: Nagi

Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 10 mins

Total: 20 mins

Sides

American Chinese, Asian

5 from 21 votes

Servings5

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Recipe video above. This is how you make cauliflower rice totally delicious - by making Cauliflower Fried Rice! The trick is to cook it hard and fast, just like real fried rice, and to ensure the cauliflower rice are "cooked rice size" rather than blitzed into tiny couscous-size grains. This gives it a real fried rice mouthfeel and eating experience!

Ingredients

• 1.5 tbsp oil , separated (vegetable, canola, peanut)
• 3 garlic cloves , minced
• 1/2 onion , finely chopped
• 75g/ 2.5 oz ham or bacon , diced
• 1 1/2 cups frozen diced peas, carrots, corn (mix, or other diced fresh veg of choice)
• 400g (4 cups) cauliflower rice, raw (Note 1)
• 2 eggs , lightly whisked
• 2 green onions , finely sliced

Sauce - Mix:

• 1 tbsp Mirin (or Chinese Cooking Wine) (sub dry sherry or cooking sake) (Note 2)
• 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce (sub Hoisin)
• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce , light or all purpose (Note 3)
• 1 tsp sesame oil , toasted

Instructions

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over high heat.
• Add garlic and onion, cook for 30 seconds.
• Add ham, cook for 1 minute to release flavour.
• Add frozen vegetables, cook 2 minutes until carrot is almost cooked.
• Add cauliflower and Sauce. Cook, stirring regularly, for 4 minutes until sauce is reduced and cauliflower is almost cooked - firm, tender crisp, not soft and mushy.
• Push the cauliflower to one side of the skillet. Add 1/2 tbsp oil, let it heat up briefly, then pour in egg.
• Leave for 10 seconds, then leisurely scramble it. Once almost cooked, mix egg through cauliflower.
• Toss through green onions then serve immediately!

Recipe Notes:

1. Cauliflower rice - make your own, buy it ready made or frozen. If frozen, thaw and drain well before using. If making your own, key trick is to ensure cauliflower is grated until it's the size of cooked rice, not tiny couscous size. Texture of cauliflower fried rice is much better when it's rice size!

2. Mirin or Chinese cooking wine ("Shaoxing wine") is the secret that will make this dish really taste like your favourite fried rice! Substitute with Japanese cooking sake or dry sherry. Non alcoholic sub - reduce Oyster Sauce to 1/2 tbsp and soy sauce to 1/2 tbsp, add 3/4 tsp chicken stock powder (granulated bouillon) into the Sauce.

3. Soy Sauce - light or all purpose soy sauce is ideal here, adds flavour without staining rice colour too much. If you only have "dark soy sauce" (will be labelled as such on the bottle) reduce to 1 tbsp. Note the your rice will be stained a dark brown colour (which actually looks very appetising!).

4. Storage - best made fresh. It's still pretty good the next day, but on Day 2 and beyond I find it starts getting a bit too wet for my taste. Still edible and decent though!

5. Nutrition per serving. Recipe will serve 5 to 6 as a side, or 3 as a meal.

Half the carbs in the nutrition per serving below is attributable to the peas, corn and carrot so they could be eliminated if you wish to make the carbs even lower. To keep some colour in it, you could toss through baby spinach instead - 1 cup raw spinach only has 1g carbs.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 144kcal (7%)Carbohydrates: 13g (4%)Protein: 9g (18%)Fat: 10g (15%)Saturated Fat: 2g (13%)Cholesterol: 72mg (24%)Sodium: 660mg (29%)Potassium: 438mg (13%)Fiber: 3g (13%)Sugar: 3g (3%)Vitamin A: 4132IU (83%)Vitamin C: 46mg (56%)Calcium: 48mg (5%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

Keywords: cauliflower fried rice

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Life of Dozer

New year, new home! Actually, I moved in the week before Christmas. And for almost a whole week, this is all I had in the living area – a work desk, and Dozer’s bed. The two most important pieces of furniture I own! 😂