Low carb Mexican Cauliflower Rice with ground turkey and lots of veggies for a healthy 30 minute dinner entire family will love. This quick skillet is easy, flavorful and filling!
Love cauliflower rice? I have over 25 cauliflower rice recipes to browse through including cauliflower fried rice, cauliflower risotto, and this Mexican cauliflower rice, of course!
Low Carb Skillet Dinner
Many of you know Mexican rice as a side dish. I made it into low-carb Mexican cauliflower rice with ground turkey. So, it’s a healthy dinner ready in 30 minutes. It works for us adults with a sedentary lifestyle who are trying to eat fewer carbs. And kids love it too!
In fact, I’ve been loving using cauliflower to create lower-carb family favorites including cauliflower pizza crust, cauliflower breadsticks, and cauliflower mashed potatoes.
This easy cauliflower rice recipe Mexican is so easy, flavorful, and filling. Not to mention it is packed with veggies to the brim. I promise you it will taste as close to the real rice experience as possible (the same goes with my cilantro lime cauliflower rice). With a few tips below.
Ingredients for Mexican Cauliflower Rice
- Cauliflower rice: You can use fresh or frozen cauliflower rice. It is made with cauliflower stalk, so it is firm and resembles real rice texture. You can buy it pretty much anywhere these days.
- Ground turkey: You can also use ground chicken or beef.
- Vegetables: Onion, garlic, green and red bell peppers, jalapeno. If you don’t love green peppers, use all colored ones. I also see how poblano will work nicely here!
- Liquids: Water or stock and tomato paste.
- Spices: Cumin, chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper.
You might also love these 45 healthy ground turkey recipes!
How to Make Mexican Cauliflower Rice
- Cook ground turkey with spices until cooked through. Make sure to constantly break it into small pieces while stirring in between. Adding spices halfway through makes meat flavorful. Remove onto a plate.
- Cook veggies in batches. Onion and garlic get browned first, then you add bell pepper and jalapeno. If you add everything at once, peppers will release too much water for browning to happen.
- Add tomato paste and stock before adding cauliflower rice. It helps to incorporate thick tomato paste evenly.
- Cook cauliflower rice just until warmed through – about 2-3 minutes. Cauliflower can be eaten raw and cooks fast, especially in small bits. Overcooking it will result in watery and mushy “rice”. Frozen “rice” takes just 1-2 minutes longer.
- Combine everything: Add previously cooked meat together with cauliflower rice. Then turn off heat, add cilantro and adjust any ingredients to taste.
More Tips
- Can’t find cauliflower rice? Here is a step by step tutorial how to make your own. Just make sure to work in small batches and not overprocess.
- Do not thaw frozen “rice”: Defrosting makes “rice” more watery as it is just a cauliflower.
- Cook fast and avoid overcooking: To avoid watery cauliflower rice dish any time, cook fast on medium-high heat and do not overcook to the point when cauliflower starts to release water.
- Add more heat: Leave some of the seeds in the jalapenos instead of de-seeding completely.
- Less or skip tomato paste: You can use half the tomato paste amount for barely any noticeable tomato taste. We prefer more.
Recommended Serving Ideas
Serving: You can serve Mexican riced cauliflower with salsa, yogurt/sour cream, Tex Mex or cotija (feta) cheese, diced avocado or guacamole. For a complete Mexican experience, try with Instant Pot refried beans. This will also pair well with several Mexican and Tex Mex dishes including chicken tostadas, chicken enchiladas, and within chicken burritos in place of rice.
The Mexican cauliflower rice skillet also works for healthy dinner sides and pairs very well with several types of protein including chili lime chicken or cilantro lime chicken.
Making Mexican Cauliflower Rice in Advance
Storing and reheating: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days in a covered glass container, makes the perfect healthy lunch idea. To reheat, I just throw it in a skillet and cook on low until warmed through. Good thing, cauliflower is watery so no extra oil or water is needed.
Can I freeze it? I have not tried freezing leftovers. If you need less servings, cut recipe in half. But I would just meal prep the whole recipe and eat throughout the week.
Enjoy and be healthy!
Related Recipes
- Cilantro lime cauliflower rice
- Mexican chicken and rice
- Thai cauliflower rice
- Taco skillet
- Instant Pot rice and beans
- Mexican chicken and rice
You may also enjoy these recipe round-ups of 14 frozen cauliflower rice recipes!
Mexican Cauliflower Rice
Ingredients
Ground Turkey:
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
Cauliflower Rice:
- 4 cups 16 oz cauliflower rice fresh or frozen
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 jalapeno seeded & diced
- 3/4 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Pinch of cayenne
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 6 oz tomato paste low sodium
- 1/2 cup water or low sodium stock
- 1/4 cup cilantro finely chopped
- 2 tsp avocado oil
Instructions
- Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and swirl 1 tsp oil to coat.
- Add ground turkey and cook for 7 minutes, breaking into small pieces with spatula and stirring often. Somewhere in the middle, add cumin, salt and pepper. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Return skillet to the stove and swirl remaining 1 tsp oil. Add onion and garlic, and saute for 2 minutes, stirring often.
- Add bell pepper and jalapeno; saute for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Somewhere in the middle, add cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt, cayenne and black pepper. Add tomato paste and broth, stir to combine.
- Add fresh or frozen (do not thaw) cauliflower rice, previously cooked ground turkey and stir well. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until warmed through.
- Add cilantro, stir and serve warm.
Notes
- Serving: You can serve Mexican riced cauliflower with salsa, yogurt, cheese or avocado.
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days in a covered glass container. To reheat, I just throw it in a skillet and cook on low until warmed through. Cauliflower is watery so no extra oil or water is needed.
- Freeze: I have not tried this. If you need less servings, cut recipe in half. But I would just meal prep the whole recipe and eat throughout the week.
- Can’t find cauliflower rice? Here is a step by step tutorial how to make your own. Just make sure to work in small batches and not overprocess.
- Do not thaw frozen “rice”: Defrosting makes “rice” more watery as it is just a cauliflower.
- Cook fast and avoid overcooking: To avoid watery cauliflower rice dish any time, cook fast on medium-high heat and do not overcook to the point when cauliflower starts to release water.
- Add more heat: Leave some of the seeds in the jalapenos instead of de-seeding completely.
- Less or skip tomato paste: You can use half the tomato paste amount for barely any noticeable tomato taste.
- Green bell pepper substitute: If you don’t love green peppers, use all colored ones.
I want to make this again, but I have lots of chopped frozen peppers. How can I use them without making this watery?
Thawed bell peppers will be watery. I’m not sure there is a way. Maybe save them for stuffed pepper soup?
I usually love your recipes but this was a miss for me. It was super easy and fast but the flavor just fell flat. I ended up topping with fresh salsa and an avocado. That helped. Still a huge fan!
Haha no worries, thank you for full disclosure. Glad you made it work and didn’t waste the food.
This looks delicious! The recipe says “4 cups 16oz of cauliflower rice”… so, 6 cups total, or text?
4 cups or 16 oz total. Sorry it’s from old recipe card plugin. I will make it more clear.
What a wonderful and healthy recipe! The flavours were excellent! My entire family loved it!!!
Yeah! I love when I hear about dinner wins!
I’ve made this twice now it’s SO GOOD!!!
This was absolutely amazing! I will definitely make it over and over again because my husband loved it and he does not like to eat healthy. In fact, he told me not to tell him what was in it because he thought he could eat it like a dip. Hahahaha, I did put tortilla chips around his dish to give it a look that would entice him and it worked!!!!!
So glad to hear of the ‘secret healthy serving’ success!
Delicious easy and fast, just the way I like it.
Awesome recipe, tasted and added additional spices if needed. Then added red cabbage and fresh corn. Already emailed to my friends
Thanks for sharing my recipe with your friends Geraldine. I am so glad you like it!