Confessions of a dietitian…I don’t really like cauliflower. Many people think that if you are a dietitian you must like everything vegetabley and not like French fries and cookies. That’s not necessarily true. 

While I do like vegetables, cauliflower is not high on my list. I mean really, it looks kind of like a brain and smells like a fart when it’s cooked. Yes, it has sulfur, and fiber, and lots of other good things, but it is still a hard sell. So when the cauliflower craze started – cauliflower mashed “potatoes,” cauliflower pizza crust, and cauliflower “rice” – I was certainly skeptical. Especially cauliflower rice. People from around the country may be able to be fooled to think that cauliflower steamed in rice-size pieces was rice but to this Southern Louisiana girl, where rice is a way of life, that was  doubtful to me. 

Steamed cauliflower “rice” was never going to replace rice. That is until I tried a new way to prepare it.  Check it out.

The secret to making cauliflower with a good rice texture is not to steam it, but to saute it. This allows the water naturally in cauliflower to evaporate and rather than steam the cauliflower it cooks out the water, giving it more of a crunch. Now this, this is something I can stand behind and really use in place of rice. 

I am still hesitant to say I like cauliflower, but I can say I actually do like cauliflower rice if it’s sauteed, not steamed.

I’d love to hear what you think about cauliflower rice.

Leave a comment below.