Cauliflower Rice: A Crucifer in Starch’s Clothing

Let me start off by saying that I am not carb-phobic.

I eat carbs. I like carbs. In fact, I get the biggest carb boners ever.

However, sometimes I prefer having a lighter meal with veggies rather than starches like rice, potatoes, bread, etc. In my opinion, vegetables are the fountain of youth. Most of us could stand to eat more of them. But depending on the person, they can be an acquired taste. I’m NOT a picky eater by any means and I like vegetables, but sometimes I just plain ol’ don’t feel like eating them.

Enter cauliflower, my favorite pseudo starch. I’ve used cauliflower to mimic things like pizza crust, mashed potatoes, and my favorite–rice. If you’re someone who has trouble eating vegetables, I’d recommend sneaking cauliflower into some of your meals. You’ll up your veggie intake without even realizing it. And cauliflower (like most veggies) is really good for you.

So here’s a simple way to serve cauliflower. All you’ll really need is a food processor.

• Rinse 1 to 1.5 cups of cauliflower.
• Put it in a food processor and chop until it’s similar in consistency to rice or couscous.
• Put in a microwave-safe bowl with lid and steam for 3-5 minutes.

Now you have cauliflower rice! I usually just add a bit of salt and pepper to it along with steamed broccoli. It’s also awesome with hummus and taboule.

My boyfriend doesn’t like cauliflower. I forced him to eat this. He approved.

I didn’t even have to force him to lie!

And for those of you who are doing the low-carb/Paleo/grain-free thing, I highly recommend checking out this blog, and particularly this link. It’s the great pizza experiment, where the blogger, Erica, makes pizza with several different kinds of low-carb/grain-free crusts. I tried the cauliflower one and it was pretty good.

So there you have it. Now go eat some veggies!