Cauliflower Rice with Fresh Herbs and Sundried Tomato
Here is an absolutely delightful cauliflower rice recipe full of fresh herbs inspired from Persian cuisine. Sundried tomatoes and lemon juice give a little zing, and toasted cashews add a lovely crunch. If you want to change somebody’s mind about just how good cauliflower can be, this is your recipe. It’s that tasty.
What is cauliflower rice?
If you’ve never had or heard of cauliflower rice before, there’s nothing too complicated about it. It is just raw cauliflower that you chop down into rice-sized pieces in a food processor.
In the US, you can often find cauliflower pre-riced in the frozen section. Here in France, the trend is only just arriving, so making my own is the best bet, plus it is so much cheaper. Here are a couple pointers for getting nice chopped cauliflower rice in your food processor:
- Chop the cauliflower first into roughly 1- to 2-inch pieces. They just need to be small enough so that they don’t get stuck when running the food processor.
- It only takes a few seconds to chop, 3 to 5 seconds of pulsing for me. You don’t want to make a purée after all!
There are many ways to cook cauliflower rice. In this recipe, we sauté the cauliflower rice in butter and garlic. Because the pieces are so small, it only takes 10 minutes to cook in the pan.
How to store raw cauliflower rice
Once the cauliflower is riced, but not yet cooked, you have a few options:
- Cook it right away
- Save it in the fridge for a few days, or
- Freeze up to three months (no blanching needed).
With this recipe, depending on the size of your cauliflower head, you may have leftover uncooked cauliflower rice, so don’t hesitate to freeze some for later or try my Indian cauliflower rice recipe!
How to make this recipe ahead of time & store
For this cauliflower rice recipe, you can easily cook the cauliflower and add the sundried tomatoes ahead of time. The herbs and nuts are best put on the reheated cauliflower rice just before serving to get the best flavor from the herbs and the best texture from the nuts. You can pre-chop the herbs a few hours ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator. The finished dish also freezes very well up to three months.
Cauliflower Rice with Fresh Herbs and Sundried Tomato
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) cauliflower florets
- 40 g (scant 3 tbsp) butter
- Black pepper
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 13 g parsley leaves finely chopped (⅓ cup)
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill or 2 tsp dried
- 10 g mint about 2 large sprigs
- 35 g (¼ cup) sundried tomatoes
- 50 g (⅓ cup) toasted, salted cashews
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Rice the cauliflower: Cut the cauliflower roughly into florets. Place the florets in a food processor and chop until the cauliflower is roughly the size of grains of rice, about 3 to 5 seconds. You may need to scrape down the cauliflower on the sides of the food processor in the middle of chopping. Avoid over-processing the cauliflower. You do not want a purée.
- Sauté: Melt the butter in a large pan over medium-low heat. When the butter starts to sizzle, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Then add the cauliflower rice, salt, and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning and to allow the cauliflower to cook evenly. The cauliflower should become golden and somewhat toasted.
- Chop: While the cauliflower is cooking, chop the cashews, herbs, and sundried tomatoes. Chop the parsley finely for the best texture.
- Assemble & serve: When the cauliflower rice is done cooking, stir in the lemon juice and top with the chopped ingredients. Serve right away.
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