WebWed: A Beginner’s Guide to Riced Cauliflower

Riced cauliflower is a favorite rice substitute in the low carb, paleo, and primal crowds. It can be wonderfully versatile once you acquire the knack of making it. The problem is…acquiring the knack of making it! (I’m still working on that one myself!)

For this week’s Web Wednesday, here’s a roundup of the best instructions I’ve found so far for getting that cauliflower from vegetable to “rice.”  I reserve the right to update this one from time to time, as I stumble across more ideas—or get better at doing this myself!

Ricing Fresh Cauliflower

Stovetop instructions

I don’t care what Yahoo! Answers says: forget the double-boiler or steamer. Try these instead:

Boiling

You can grate the cauliflower before you boil it, or after. (If you don’t have a food processor, I  recommend after. See note on stir-frying, below.)

• boil first
• grate first: The only instructions I found for this method were on this vegan page, and they’re not very specific. (Scroll down to the collard green wraps.) Still, worth a try if you need to!

Stir-frying

A note about this one: Stir-fried cauli-rice requires that you grate the cauliflower before you cook it. This is a pain and a half if you don’t have a food processor or a very good blender. My blender won’t do this well, and I tried that grate-it-by-hand thing–as I said, pain and a half! I am also incompetent at chopping fresh cauliflower finely and evenly enough to use like this.

So, since I don’t have a food processor, I won’t be stir-frying cauli rice very often!

For those of you who can, though, here are the basics. Plus more detail, if you need it.

Microwave instructions

This video, with accompanying transcript, pretty much says it all.

Again, though, they’re relying on a food processor to grate the cauliflower before they cook it. If you don’t have a food processor, it would probably be easier to skip the microwave and use the “boil first” instructions above.

Ricing Frozen Cauliflower

Stovetop instructions

Still frozen

I’m not finding specific instructions for this. I would suggest boiling 6-8 minutes, similar to the “fresh” method above. Drain well, then grate with a food processor or cheese grater.

Thawed

Not sure why I tried this, but I did. Boil for 4-6 minutes. Drain liquids well, then grate.

Microwave instructions

Still frozen

Try this method from Your Lighter Side. I press this through a cheese grater. Use the food processor if you’ve got it

Thawed

Again, not sure why I even tried this. But since I did:

Drain the thawed cauliflower and place it in a covered, microwave-safe bowl.  Microwave for 3 – 5 minutes, until steaming hot. Drain again, and grate.

Your Turn!

Those are the basics of getting that cauliflower ready for whatever recipe you wanted to try.

Do you have some better instructions for us? Questions about any of this? Drop a comment below!