How to Make Cauliflower Rice ~ So Easy

Making cauliflower rice at home is an easy way to incorporate more whole foods into your meals. My son has a palm oil allergy and intolerance. Because of this, I cook most foods from scratch. The less processed the better! 

Before I owned a decent food processor, I bought cauliflower rice already chopped. It was expensive. Making matters worse, sometimes there would be so much moisture in the bag, I couldn’t use a lot of it because it was spoiling. Other times, it would go bad if I didn’t use it right away.

Learning how to make cauliflower rice was a gamechanger. Now I buy a head of cauliflower every time I go to the store. A whole cauliflower usually keeps longer than prechopped bags. In addition, I can use some of the florets raw or steamed, and chop up the rest. But most of the time, I process the entire cauliflower.

Ricing it at home instead of buying bagged cauliflower rice is an excellent way to save money on produce. It’s usually fresher than prechopped as well.

It’s so easy to make cauliflower rice. You just need a head of cauliflower and a high performance blender or food processor. You can also use a box grater.

Cauliflower Rice

While grocery stores sell it pre-chopped in bags, you will save money by making your own. Per pound, it’s less expensive to buy a head of cauliflower than it is to buy a prepackaged bag of cauliflower rice.

I love making this at home because in addition to being more affordable, it’s a lot fresher. When you process it yourself, you can ensure the quality is better.

It’s incredible how florets can transform so easily in a food processor. Cauliflower rice is a healthy alternative to rice and has lower carbs than rice. I like it because it’s a way to get cauliflower into our diets. 

Adding different seasonings keeps it interesting.

Also, I use the entire cauliflower when I make cauliflower rice, including the big stem. When we just break off florets to eat raw, steam, or roast, we usually don’t eat the main stem. But when I prepare it for the food processor, I chop up the stem and toss it in as well. The stem rices really well.

What You Need to Make Cauliflower Rice

It’s pretty basic. To start, you need cauliflower florets. You can use the entire cauliflower head or parts of it… whatever you have.

To save time, you’ll need a high-performance blender or food processor. Some examples are  NutriBullet, Vitamix, Ninja Mega, or Breville Sous Chef Food Processor. There are models by Cuisinart and KitchenAid that would work well too. 

If you don’t own one of these, you can also use a standup box grater. However, this will take longer. Growing up grating cabbage for coleslaw makes me never want to use one again, but you can use a box grater to make cauliflower rice.

My Vitamix is one of the kitchen appliances I use the most. In previous years, I only had an outdated blender. It didn’t do anything like the Vitamix, and I barely used it. A good food processor makes chopping cauliflower easy. It’s something I do every week.

How to Make Cauliflower Rice

1. Wash the cauliflower.
2. Cut away any brown parts.
3. Cut off the leaves and green parts.
4. Break cauliflower florets apart.
5. Chop the cauliflower stem. You can process it as well.
6. Put the smaller cauliflower florets and stems on the bottom of the food processor or blender.
7. Fill it half way, putting the larger pieces on top.
8. Process it on low-to-medium speed. Pour rice cauliflower into a bowl or saucepan.
9. Fill the blender with the rest of the cauliflower florets and stems. Pulse until chopped.
10. Pour into bowl to refrigerate or in a pan to cook.

Pro Tips 

Do not put the entire head of cauliflower into the food processor at the same time. Fill it a quarter or halfway up. Otherwise, you will risk burning out the motor.

Be sure to put smaller florets and pieces on the bottom and larger pieces on the top. 

Store it covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It will last 4 – 5 days if it’s refrigerated and sealed completely without air. You can also toss it in a freezer bag (raw or cooked and cooled). Just be sure to get the air out. You can freeze cauliflower rice for up to 3 months.

Cauliflower Rice Recipes

There are many ways to use cauliflower rice. Cauliflower is a really versatile vegetable. You can use it to make cauliflower oatmeal for a healthy breakfast. Add brown sugar, sliced fresh fruit or dried fruit, cinnamon, nuts, seeds, or whatever you have.

Cook the cauliflower rice in butter, avocado oil (or other tasteless oil), coconut oil, or milk. Some sweet ideas to add include:

• Cinnamon and sugar
• Brown sugar and almonds
• Sliced apple and walnuts
• Raisins, cinnamon, honey
• Nut butter and dried fruit
• Pure maple syrup and sliced banana

You can add riced cauliflower to stews, soups, casseroles and breakfast frittata muffins.

You can put it on the stovetop and cook it with olive oil and serve like you would rice.

I like to cook the riced cauliflower with chopped scallions and leeks and organic olive oil. Sometimes I‘ll add in some shredded ginger root or organic ginger powder. I add salt and pepper and enjoy an easy side for dinner or a healthy snack when I just want to eat something.

Some cauliflower rice recipes and combinations (I hate to call them recipes because really you can toss in whatever you have) to cook on the stovetop:

• Olive oil, lime, cilantro, salt, spring onions
• Olive oil, sliced mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced peppers, onions, salt and pepper
• Avocado oil, chili powder, onions, chopped garlic cloves or garlic powder
• Avocado oil, sautéed zucchini and squash, salt and pepper
• Olive oil, lemon slices, garlic, onion, cauliflower and broccoli florets – reserve a few cauliflower florets

How to Make Cauliflower Rice Taste Good

Compared to eating it raw, I think it’s easy to make cauliflower rice taste good. Set it on the stovetop with some olive oil, salt and pepper. You can add any spice you like. I often add garlic powder. You can add chili powder if you want to make it spicy. Chop some scallions for added flavor. Toss in some sliced lime or lemon. If you have fresh herbs, such as basil or cilantro, add it in for different flavors.

Even preparing it with just olive oil, salt and pepper is terrific. You can make it a sweet treat for breakfast as well. You won’t even know you’re eating cauliflower when you prepare it like you would oatmeal or other breakfast grain.

Incorporating More Vegetables into the Day

You can save a lot of money by making cauliflower rice at home. There are many ways to use riced cauliflower. Buy a few cauliflowers when you go to the grocery store and prepare it for breakfast and for lunch or dinner. Enjoy it throughout the week.

We use cauliflower a lot because we avoid processed foods as much as possible. My son is allergic to palm oil. It makes him sick. Because of this, I have learned to cook most all of our foods from scratch. While my kids are excellent at eating raw fruits and vegetables, they aren’t great at eating them cooked.

My kids still prefer to eat raw florets rather than cooked cauliflower. However, what I like about ricing cauliflower at home is I can buy the whole cauliflower, break off some florets for them, and then rice the rest so it doesn’t spoil. 

Sometimes I’ll cook this cauliflower rice and put it in the refrigerator to cool. Then I’ll add just a bit to their smoothies. Other times, I mix it half and half with plain rice. They will eat it as cauliflower oatmeal as well. My husband and I enjoy eating it like rice, mixed with vegetables or plain with onions or spices.

There are lots of ways to prepare cauliflower rice. It takes just five minutes to process, and you get a higher quality product than when buying cauliflower rice already prepared. Also, I’m all about saving money while trying to eat healthy.

You can also make a whole roasted cauliflower which make for a delicious side dish and looks lovely on the dinner table. 

Thank you for being interested in palm oil free cooking. Please leave me a note in the Comments, and let me know if you make cauliflower rice and how you enjoy it. What do you add to it? 

This recipe goes well with grilled acorn squash or roasted brussels sprouts and carrots. Serve cauliflower dishes with homemade cornbread muffins too! For another recipe using ingredients you can find year round, make this Mediterranean dip.