Thursday, June 23, 2016

Food Review: Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower

When we were grabbing our usual stuff at Trader Joe's, I happened to see they had a bag of riced cauliflower by the bags of Brussels sprouts.  I heard about this, especially with all the paleo recipes out there, but I knew I'd never take the time to run a head through a food processor.  Besides, the Mr doesn't like cauliflower so I figured it was a no go.  I held up the bag and said "wanna try it?" casually and he said okay so I threw it in the cart before it registered what he agreed to.  But he does love his Chinese food and I thought if there was another way to get more veggies in at dinner without it feeling like it, then it was worth a try.  

Here's the bag.


I had some fresh ginger and leftover white parts of scallions so I cut those up.


I added them to the riced cauliflower and steamed it for three minutes.


I had two servings of frozen peas going in the skillet and I added the cauliflower to it.


You could totally leave it that way after a few minutes of sauteing.


I had other plans.


I finished out the 3 tbsp left of the chili jam and gave it a stir.  Looks just like fried rice, huh?


I put four ounces of chicken on top and sprinkled on some sesame seeds and we had a nice Chinese dinner!


The verdict?

I'd totally get it again.  I probably wouldn't steam it first and would just saute it like the package says but I was afraid if there was any kind of toothiness to it that the Mr would wrinkle his nose at it.  I would also use 2 tbsp of chili jam because I don't know if it was the bottom of the barrel or what but that shizz was HOT!  I think the person who coined the phrase "fire in my belly" was eating chili jam at the time.  But I like it hot so it wasn't bad but I know he likes it just a little less spicy than my furnace belly can take.  I'll let you see what he thought in his comment.

So basically the pictured meal was 360 calories compared to 430 calories if I'd done a serving of rice and I got more veggie rice volume wise.  So I would say go for it if you are looking to cut back on your rice consumption or just want a change of pace every now and then.

Of course this is Trader Joe's so snag it while you can...who knows when they'll yank it.

Have you ever used riced cauliflower as a rice substitute?

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5 comments:

  1. I do NOT care for cauliflower in the least, so anyone who hates cauliflower like I do can relate I'm sure. However, I have to admit that I did not realize you had replaced the rice with cauliflower at first. I knew you had bought this and I knew it was eventually going to make its way into my dinner but it didn't quite occur to me until I really thought about it. So basically all I noticed was that the rice seemed a bit overly soft to me, but it still honestly tasted like rice. I also admit that I noticed something different when you were actually cooking it but not enough that I knew what it was at all. So yeah, this actually passes the test of fooling me into thinking I was eating rice instead of something I cannot stand. I would get it again and if you were to allow it to be a bit more on the crispy side, I doubt I would know the difference next time.

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  2. I would really like to try this. We don't have a T.J.'s but I think I read that there is a Green Giant one available as well. I like rice but don't eat it as much as I'd like because of the way it bumps up my blood sugar. Plus I'm trying to get in more veggies so this would be perfect. Thanks for the review!!

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  3. Interesting. I will have to look for the Green Giant one Sarah mentioned because we don't have a Trader Joe's by us either. I do use cauliflower alot in other recipes though, so taste wise we should be good.

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  4. A while back, I made my own cauliflower rice (kind of tedious) in order to try the pizza crust recipe that's been going around for a while. I was not impressed with that. It was okay, but by the time you add the eggs and cheese to make the crust, I don't see that you've saving many calories. I have been very interested in trying out the pre-riced cauliflower you can now buy at the store (I assume it's in the freezer section, and I hear it's hard to find cause people snatch it up so quickly) as rice in a recipe like you concocted. That looks really really good. I may be off to TJ's later today to see what I can find.

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  5. It does look good, something I would definitely try if I see it at the store.

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