Being the ‘bheto-bangali’ that I unabashedly am, to go without rice is something I dread. However, with carbs being the new diet monster and with me trying to shed a few kilos, I tried my hand at making the latest keto sensation – the cauliflower rice.

So here goes the recipe!

Ingredients:

1. Cauliflower – 1 whole big sized
2. Chicken – 150 gm, boneless, skinless
3. Onions – 2, chopped
4. Green Chillies – 2-3, chopped
5. Garlic – 7-8 big cloves, chopped
6. Whole black pepper – 10-12
7. Salt – To taste
8. Soy sauce – 2 teaspoons
9. Balsamic vinegar- 2 teaspoons
10. Fish sauce – 2 teaspoons
11. Honey – 2 teaspoons
12. Roasted peanuts – A handful
13. White oil: 2 tablespoons

Preparation:

The preparation involves quite a bit of finely chopping up almost all the solid ingredients and roughly breaking up the rest. I did these with my hand-held processor, and mortar and pestle respectively.

• First I washed and cut up the cauliflower floret into large chunks. Then I finely chopped them up into pieces approximately double the size of bloomed rice. Care must be taken not to over-chop them, lest they turn into a sludge. Additionally I laid out the chopped cauliflower on a paper towel, to take out any moisture left from the washing.
• Next I chopped the chicken into a mince.
• Lastly I chopped the onions, green chillies and garlic finely.
• Then came the grinding. I roughly ground the black pepper in a mortar and pestle.
• Finally I roughly ground up the roasted peanuts.

Method:

• Heat one tablespoon of oil in a wok.
• Add the chopped onion, chillies and garlic and fry till they wilt and change colour.
• Add the chicken mince. The chicken itself will release some water, so no need to add any additional water.
• Add in the salt and ground pepper a stir until the mixture is completely dry.
• Keep aside.
• Again heat a tablespoon of oil in the wok and put in the cauliflower mince. Cook for one minute on high flame. Make sure not to overcook it.
• Add in the chicken mince mixture.
• Add the soy sauce and fish sauce and stir.
• Check seasoning
• Turn off the heat.
• In another small wok or tadka pan, heat up the balsamic vinegar till it reduces to half, mix in the honey and turn off the heat. Add in the roughly ground toasted peanuts.
• You can mix the two, but I prefer to keep the balsamic-honey-peanut separately, as a crunchy condiment.

Note:

– It’s very easy to overcook the cauliflower so keep a hawk’s eye on it. The only essential in the recipe is to retain some body and not turn it into a sludgy bobble.

– Do not cover while cooking, otherwise steam will make the mixture moist.

– Other veggies can be added too but it is better to avoid watery ones like tomatoes or overly starchy ones.

And your mock fried rice is ready! For a vegan version, you can substitute the chicken with button mushrooms.

This is a favourite guilt-free bowl of comfort for me that I love eating in winter. Does it match up real fried rice? Well, surprisingly, for me, it does! 🙂

Let me know if it works for you too!