January 24, 2020

by Olena

Cauliflower Fried Rice

January 24, 2020

by Olena
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★★★★★

4.9 from 32 reviews

Cauliflower Fried Rice is healthy, low carb and and so tasty kids will think it is real rice. Ready in 15 minutes with fresh or frozen cauliflower, this will become your new favorite stir fry.

Cauliflower fried rice

Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry

Cauliflower fried rice is so easy, it makes to our Friday dinner menu. You know how I feel about cooking on a Friday night?! Just like you.

This cauliflower fried rice recipe with store-bought or homemade cauliflower rice, peas, carrots and simple seasonings won over even the kids. Boys thought it was real rice. Their eyes were a saucer size when I told them it’s cauliflower. There is a trick though. Keep on reading.

And by the way, you can use fresh or frozen cauliflower in 15 minutes. No thawing is required. 🙂

cauliflower fried rice recipe

Ingredients You Will Need

  • Medium head of cauliflower or 16 oz store-bought cauliflower rice
  • Frozen or fresh peas and carrots
  • Eggs
  • Green onion
  • Seasonings like soy sauce, honey and oil
  • Garlic and ginger

How to Make Cauliflower Fried Rice

Just like with any stir fry, make sure all ingredients are ready before cooking fried rice. Stir fries cook fast.

  • Saute onion, garlic, ginger, carrot and peas for 4-5 minutes in a large skillet. The larger skillet, the more “fried” vs. steamed vegetables will be. And since cauliflower is not real rice, we have a lot of vegetables going on here.
  • Push vegetables to the side and add eggs. Cook until eggs are scrambled.
  • Add cauliflower rice and cook until warmed through. The key is not to overcook cauliflower to start releasing water. Since we can eat cauliflower raw, it needs only 2-3 minutes.
  • Push cauliflower rice to the side and add honey and soy sauce. If using thick honey, hot skillet is perfect for melting it. And sorry, bottom left and right pictures should be swapped.

how to make cauliflower fried ricehow to cook cauliflower fried rice

Tips and Variations

  • Do not thaw frozen cauliflower rice. In fact, if you defrost cauliflower rice before cooking, it will be soggy and make cauliflower stir fry a watery mess.
  • Buy a few bags of fresh cauliflower rice and freeze. This way you can always make this yummy low carb dinner.
  • If you have picky eaters, store-bought cauliflower rice coarse texture resembles more real rice because it is made with stems only.
  • Make cauliflower chicken fried rice. Use ground chicken or finely chopped boneless chicken breast and saute first in a pan before adding other ingredients. Pork works the same way.
  • For shrimp fried rice, cook dices raw shrimp first, remove onto a plate, follow the recipe and then add cooked shrimp back. If you use cooked shrimp, dice and add it at the end.
  • Make rice spicy by adding a pinch of red pepper flakes or a few teaspoons of sriracha.

How to Serve and Store Cauliflower Fried Rice

First of all, sprinkle with a lot of green onion.

If you don’t add chicken like me, then baked chicken breast would be perfect to go with rice. Or if you are a fan of dark meat, I recommend these baked chicken thighs. Try grilled salmon or more Asian crispy honey garlic salmon.

You can refrigerate leftovers of cauli fried rice for up to 2 days. It won’t get soggy as all ingredients are pretty firm.

I would not freeze and reheat it though. That’s when things get watery and soggy. Just eat this low carb meal until it’s done. So good!

More Cauliflower Rice Recipes

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Cauliflower Fried Rice

cauliflower fried rice
Print Recipe

★★★★★

4.9 from 32 reviews

Cauliflower Fried Rice is healthy, low carb and and so tasty kids will think it is real rice. Ready in 15 minutes with fresh or frozen cauliflower, this will become your new favorite stir fry.

  • Author: Olena of ifoodreal.com
  • Prep Time: 3 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Stove
  • Cuisine: Asian
Scale

Ingredients

  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tbsp ginger, minced
  • 1 large carrot, diced
  • 1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
  • 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 4 eggs, large
  • 16 oz bag of cauliflower rice, fresh or frozen
  • 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 onion sprigs, finely chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and swirl oil to coat. Add onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, peas and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. Push vegetables to the side and add eggs. Cook until scrambled, stirring constantly.
  3. Add cauliflower rice (don’t thaw frozen one), stir and cook until warmed through.
  4. Push cauliflower rice to the side and add honey and soy sauce, stir well. Sprinkle with green onion and serve.

Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Notes

You can make your own cauliflower rice but I prefer store-bought because it saves time and its coarse texture resembles more real rice than homemade. I swear my kids’ eyes were a size of a saucer when I told them it’s not real rice.

Make cauliflower chicken fried rice. Use ground chicken or finely chopped boneless chicken breast and saute first in a pan before adding other ingredients. Pork works the same way.

Make shrimp cauliflower fried rice by cooking diced raw shrimp first. Remove it onto a plate, follow the recipe and then add cooked shrimp back. If you use cooked shrimp, dice and add it at the end of cooking the recipe.

Make spicy cauliflower fried rice by adding a pinch of red pepper flakes or a few teaspoons of sriracha.

★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.

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olena osipov in the studio

Hello and welcome to iFOODreal.

My name is Olena Osipov. I'm a mom to 2 boys and a wife to Alex. And this is our healthy family recipes blog. I grew up in Ukraine on real food. As an adult, I tried many diets without results. Now for over 10 years, I cook quick and easy healthy meals for my family. I can help you with “What’s for dinner?” too.

What You Will Find Here

Healthy family recipes with simple ingredients. Many are inspired by my Ukrainian heritage. I share mostly dinner recipes because it just never ends... I’m obsessed with healthy freezer meals. And more than in love with my Instant Pot.

A Little More About Me

Originally from Ukraine, I now reside on magic Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada with my family. I started this blog in 2012 when I ended up at home with 2 small kids unemployed and a wee bit chubby.

Read more about Olena

63 comments on “Cauliflower Fried Rice”

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  1. I am moving toward a healthier cleaner eating lifestyle so I was excited to find and try this recipe. The only thing I added was broccoli and I use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce due to high blood pressure. It tasted great and was quick and easy!! A new addition to my recipe book.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  3. Wow another wonderful and quick recipe.
    I’d never seen cauliflower rice here in Barcelona so I made my own from a fresh cauliflower. However, a quick Internet search shows me I can buy it frozen 100m from my place but it’s more than double the price!
    I’m interested to see if my youngest son realizes it not real rice.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  9. This was marvelous. Had too much ginger for me, so next time hubby makes it, i’ll have him cut it in 1/2. Otherwise this was very tasty, whipped up in a jiffy, and SOOOO healthy!! Leftovers for lunch tomorrow!! Yippee!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  10. I made it tonight for dinner using shrimp and it was really very good. The only item I didn’t have on hand was fresh ginger but I substituted ground ginger which worked out fine.
    I defrosted the shrimp and dredged them in Old Bay seasoning but also added some cayenne pepper to taste. It was not over powering but added an extra layer of flavoring. Everything came together very easily m

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  15. Hi my name is Mady and I am a twelve year old girl. My mom and I make your recipes all the time and today for lunch I made your riced cauliflower fried rice! It was absolutely amazing and my whole family loved it! I even tricked my 14 year old brother because I didn’t tell him it was cauliflower and he absolutely adored it! Keep up the outstanding work!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    1. Marci! Thank you so much for sharing this with me! I am so happy to hear you are cooking in the kitchen with your mom and loving my recipes. Keep on cooking!

      Reply

  17. Amazing recipes , simple to follow and delicious to taste .
    Thank you Olena for the effort you are putting for all of us to have a great meal on the table and make all our life’s easier

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  19. This was my first attempt to use cauliflower rice! I can’t believe a recipe this good is not written on the package.

    Reply

  23. I look at cauliflower rice every me I’m in produce department. Just didn’t know what to do with it. Thank you for this recipe, we enjoy all the foods listed so the finished dish will be well received.
    I so enjoy following your e-mail messages/recipes. I’m not that good a searching the web.

    Reply

  24. In my country, rice is part of our Daily menú. With this recipe i can made “rice” more healthy!
    Thanks

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  25. I just tried this after a failed attempt the previous night. Because I didn’t read the tips and variations before trying to make it, I did thaw the cauliflower rice (steamable bag) and just used a different frozen bag of cauliflower when I saw (finally) saw the tip. Alas, the frozen was a horrible wet sloppy mess. So, I restrategized. I took the thawed cauliflower rice and strained it in a fine mesh strainer (cheesecloth would also work). I re-prepped veggies and put everything in containers in the fridge. Voila. The cauliflower had dried out more and I was ready to go! This time, it was fantastic. Plan on making it again and subbing the soy sauce for liquid aminos. Thanks for the recipe!

    ★★★★

    Reply

  26. This really does taste like fried rice. I used fried kielbasa and only 2 eggs. My family will not go near cauliflower but I bet they won’t know! Thank you!!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  27. I thought it was delicious! I even had my husband try it and he’s super picky and he liked it! I made the recipe according to how it was written, I will add just a tiny bit more spice next time but other then that 2 thumbs up! Thank You!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  28. My family and I loved this! I substituted frozen broccoli for the peas since I am not a fan of peas. I served it with sesame chicken on top. Definitely tasted very close to fried rice.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  34. I made this last night and we loved it! Even my husband had good things to say about it, even though he’s not into ‘all that healthy stuff’. I added shrimp & mushrooms and served with sides of sweet potatoes & steamed asparagus. A delicious and filling dinner. I’ll be making this again.

    Reply

  35. Quick Question: Are there significant health benefits to the cauliflower as opposed to using brown rice?

    Reply

    1. The only difference cauliflower is lower in calories and carbs. So, you would have to eat more cauliflower to feel fuller but will consume less carbs. Both are whole foods that are good for you! It’s just a lighter alternative for those who are watching their weight.:) Brown rice is very good too!

      Reply

  36. Your cauliflower rice looks so fluffy, colorful…I guess I would say “authentic” but without all the fat and additives from the Asian buffet. Speaking of Asian Buffet, I visited one last week, and after consciously eating so healthy since the New Year, I felt HORRIBLE after my buffet dinner. It’s not that I ate so much, it’s that EVERYTHING tasted the same — which was sugar-saturated and oily. I could almost feel the organic nutrients I have been absorbing taking up the fight with against MSG, cheap chicken w/additives, and low quality beef. I will not be visiting again anytime soon, I felt so physically bad.

    Anyway back to your glorious dish….Made this last night. I can’t quite convince myself to buy pre-riced cauliflower when I can get 2 large heads for $4 right now and make my own. Because I used my own riced cauliflower, it didn’t come out as “fluffy” as yours looks, but the taste…OMG! It was delicious!! The ginger and garlic brighten the flavor of this dish so nicely. I added chicken to mine for a one pot meal. If I had opened a Fortune Cookie at the end of dinner, it would have said, “Quick, Tasty Meal Nourishes the Body and Leaves Time for the Soul.” Another winner dinner!! Thanks

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    1. Yeah, eating out after you eat healthy at home doesn’t taste as good. You can taste all the crap.
      Glad you enjoyed. You can also add shrimp. I think with store-bought rice they process the stems after selling the florets separately, that’s why it’s less mushy and bigger “grain”.

      Reply

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