You won’t believe that this simple rice pilaf is made primarily with one secret ingredient: Cauliflower! It’s unbelievably fluffy and jam-packed with tender broccoli, crunchy almonds and soft golden raisins. Serve with roast chicken or fish for a healthy dinner or lunch.
Guys, I feel that the time is here and the time is now to confess my ginormous and somewhat-ridiculous love for cauliflower rice.
Yep. I’ve hopped on board the cauli-rice train and I am never ever getting off.
Big huge-ish bowls of fluffy cauliflower rice with tender broccoli, toasty almonds, and soft golden raisins to be exact….gahhh!
And I’m using the term “rice” pretty loosely here, and you may wonder why in the title, rice is surrounded by quotation marks.
As you may have guessed by now, the “rice” part of this pilaf is actually cauliflower all ground up into rice-shaped pieces and pretending to be legit rice.
Cauli, you had me going there for a few seconds. And I’M the one who actually made this pilaf so I knew exactly what was in it and it still fooled me when I took that first taste.
You’re pretty dang sneaky, cauli. 😉
Guys, its basically astounding how awesome this pilaf tastes when basically all you’re eating is veggies. Health food?! All the way. — My mind is blown.
So your food processor: This is where the magic begins. Chop up a head of cauliflower, throw it in and give it a few whirls until the cauliflower resembles tiny pieces of rice.
From there, you’re just gonna throw it in a skillet with some onions, garlic, a little bit of coconut oil, and chopped broccoli florets.
It’ll only take about 5 minutes of sauteing over medium-high heat then….dump in those almonds, golden raisins, a little bit of chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper, aaaaand…
Faceplant into the entire pile of this fluffy mountain of heaven.
Who needs a fork when you have a productive face?
Sorry. TMI? Movin’ on….
My mom, who you may have heard is on a Paleo diet, absolutely LOVES this rice and has recently been buying head after head of cauliflower so I can make it for her.—I’ve literally made this rice pilaf 3 times in the past week.
Seriously, she’s going cauliflower-crazy and I think it’s starting to rub off on me, because I’m completely hooked on cauli now too…
Yeah, so I’m blaming my mom for the fact that I ended up making my dinner last night, solely two huge bowls of this rice.
Everyone else in my family hates, repeat HATES this rice, but my mom and I are totally cool with that. That means there’s just two of us to fight over the leftovers. (I usually win those fights since I’m the one who made it–ha!)
You’ll understand why this super-fluffy rice is worth fighting over just from SMELLING it cooking. Once you taste it, forget it—Your self control is going, going, gone.
Who knew cauliflower could be so sneakily amazing?
This is heaven, guys. Who needs brownies when you have cauliflower rice?! 😀
Broccoli Cauliflower “Rice” Pilaf
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Ingredients
- 1 medium head of cauliflower coarsely chopped
- 1-1/2 cups broccoli florets
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place chopped cauliflower florets in a food processor. Pulse several times until cauliflower is ground up into tiny pieces. (do not overprocess)
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute ground-up cauliflower, broccoli florets, onion, and garlic in coconut oil. Stir occasionally until veggies are tender and cauliflower is softened slightly and resembles rice-texture.
- Remove cauliflower rice from heat and stir in almonds, raisins, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm.
Arpita@ The Gastronomic Bong says
Wow!! Culiflower rice is genius.. and this looks so delicious… absolutely loving this incredible pilaf.. 🙂
Sarah says
Thanks, Arpita! 🙂
Mary Frances @ The Sweet {Tooth} Life says
You really just read my mind. I was making lo mein yesterday and was like, I should try the cauliflower rice thing that’s going around Pinterest.
This looks waaaay better.
The almonds and broccoli make this such a pretty side dish!
Sarah says
Hahaha YES. Girl, you so need to hop on board the cauli-train—you’ll be glad you did. 😀
Amber @ Dessert Now, Dinner Later! says
I bet your family just loves when you cook for them! Sounds like your mom for sure does! I would love a big bowl of this! I wish I could get my kids to eat this healthy!
Sarah says
You should totally try and trick your kids with this cauli-rice, Amber! They’ll never be any the wiser. 😉