Ironically this dish is called cauliflower rice or cauli rice, but there is no rice in it. It’s made using just cauliflower florets which has been smashed into tiny pieces which apparently gives the look of rice. Since it’s been already named as cauli rice I am not trying for a name change here.

I tried to make this dish more flavorful by adding some Indian spices and it worked really well. You could serve this as a side dish or make a bed of cauli rice on a plate and top it with grilled or baked chicken. It’s absolutely delish!

Cauliflower Rice

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower, separated into florets- 1 small or use half of the large one
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Dry red chilly, whole- 2
• Onion, minced- 1 medium
• Ginger, minced- 1 1/2 tsp
• Garlic, minced- 1 tsp
• Tomato, chopped- 2
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Tomato sauce- 3 tbsp
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 1 tbsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 1 handful
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Heat a large pot filled with water over medium heat, let the water come to a slight roll.
• Add the cauliflower florets into the boiling water and cook it till tender.
• Drain the water and keep the cooked cauliflower aside.
• Place a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil.
• When the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
• Add cumin seeds and dry red chilly, saute for a second.
• Add onion and salt, saute for a few minutes.
• Add minced ginger and garlic, saute till onions turn tender.
• Now, add the tomato and cook till it gets mashed.
• Add the cooked cauliflower florets.
• Using a wooden spoon, break the florets into really small.
• To the cauliflower, add chilly powder, coriander powder and cumin powder, combine everything together.
• Add the tomato sauce and soy sauce, stir fry the cauliflower for a few minutes.
• Stir fry till all the water dries up.
• Finish it off with chopped cilantro.
• Serve as a side dish or make it as a bed and top it with grilled or baked chicken.

Soup which is rich in fibre from the Beans and the Cauliflower, makes it satisfying enough to be a main course..

There are so many reasons why I love soups, few reasons are: A bowl of steaming homemade soup is good enough to fill my stomach and I don’t have to do any extra cooking by making other sides to go with the soup. Also, I could throw any kinds of veggies or meat or beans, literally anything from my pantry or refrigerator can go into that soup pot. If you feel that your refrigerator is over stacked with veggies and wants to empty them without even thrashing a single veggie, then consider making a hearty soup throwing everything into the pot. You get to enjoy the homemade soup and nothing will go wasted. Apart from these, soups are nourishing, refreshing and inexpensive if you want to feed a large crowd. When the soup is homemade, there is nothing more comforting than that.

Last night, I made a soup with cauliflower and two types of beans: Red kidney beans and Black eyed peas. In most of the soups, the flavor comes from the chicken stock or veggie stock added to that. So this time I wanted to avoid adding the chicken stock, of course to make it more healthy. Hence to make the soup rich and flavorful I had to puree the cooked beans and cauliflower, which indeed made the soup hearty and rich.

Cauliflower and Beans Soup:

Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• Onion, chopped- 1
• Celery ribs, chopped-2
• Garlic minced- 2 cloves
• Cauliflower, separated into florets- 1 whole
• Tomatoes, diced-2
• Black Eyed Peas dried- 1/2 cup
• Red Kidney Beans, canned, drained and rinsed- 15.5 oz can
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Bay leaves, fresh or dried-2
• Parsley sprigs- 2
• Ground pepper- 1 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Water- 4 cups
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
• Grated Parmesan, to garnish- 1 tbsp/bowl or according to your needs

Preparation:

• In a large Pot with Cover, heat 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, celery, garlic and season with ground pepper and salt.
• Cover over medium heat, until the veggies are softened, 5 minutes.
• Add the cauliflower and saute.
• Add the tomatoes and cook for few minutes.
• Add the dried black eyed peas and water, bring to a boil.
• Add the parsley, thyme and bay leaves into the pot.

• Cover the pot and simmer over low heat until the black-eyed peas are tender, it takes 30 minutes.
• When the black-eyed beans are well cooked, add the red kidney beans and simmer for 10 minutes longer.
• When the beans are cooked through, transfer the thick soup into a blender in batches and puree it into a coarse paste.
• Pour the pureed soup into the pot, if the soup is too thick you could add water to thin it according to your needs.
• Taste the soup, add more salt and ground pepper if needed.
• Ladle the soup into bowls.
• Sprinkle each bowl with 1 tbsp of the cheese and serve hot.

Tips:

• You could add low sodium Chicken Stock instead of water and cook the beans in it.
• If you are using chicken stock, there is no need of pureeing the soup, you could have it just like that.
• To make it healthy, I cooked the beans in water and pureed it for making the soup rich and flavorful

I absolutely adore cauliflower. I find this veggie as a pretty bride, dressed up in white gown with a green lace around it, any groom would go crazy for this bridal beauty. I know I am thinking little out of the box here, it’s just a part of my wild thoughts, no offense to any other veggies out there. If I were a veggie groom I would have married this pretty bride without any second thought, lol.

When I go for veggie shopping this bride gets in to my shopping cart pretty easily and then finds a place in my refrigerator and sits elegantly. I put this in most of my veggie dishes like soups, stews and salads, even if the recipe doesn’t call for this. Sometimes I even make fritters out of this. And many times the famous Indo-Chinese dish, Gobi Manchurian. Same thing happened during my last shopping, it did tag along with me and this time it had been flirting with the other veggies in my refrigerator for quite a long time. Somehow I totally forgot about this and it was yesterday that I took it out and gave the pretty bride a royal roast after seasoning it. Nothing fancy about the roasting part, hence, I wanted to give this roasted bride a good presentation, so I made a cone out of the parchment paper and filled it with roasted cauli and placed it on a stand. This way it was easy to munch on while watching a movie or when lazily sitting on the couch.

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower, separated to small sized florets (don’t chop it)- 1/2 of the cauliflower

Seasonings:

• pepper powder-1 tsp
• Paprika-1 tsp
• Thyme- 1 string chopped
• Salt- 1/2 tsp
• Olive oil-1 tbsp

Roasting:

• In a large bowl combine the cauliflower and the seasonings, give it a toss.
• Pre-heat the oven to 400F.
• Spread the seasoned florets on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Roast it uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until it gets caramelized and becomes golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and serve it hot immediately.