Apr 7, 2010

Cauliflower Rice

Another one of my favorite vegetable rice varieties. Sometimes Cauliflower rice is simply made bland and even looks white. While that is also tasty, I like this method which has a lot of added flavor.

The rice itself is first cooked in tomato puree which adds juice and moisture to each particle of rice. And then its mixed with cauliflower  that is cooked separately. This way, the cauliflower still remains crisp while eating the rice. If the rice is cooked with cauliflower, it really softens the veggie and some pieces get all mushy and soggy - not a good way for me to eat. Don't like that.

You could use the same method to make many more varieties of rice - even pulav and biriyani would be full of flavor when cooked this way.

Let's get started with the recipe.

I cooked rice in my rice cooker. But, here's what you do before you put the rice inside the cooker.

Chop up one onion and use half of it for this step. Save the other half for the next step.

Heat up the rice cooker. Add 1 tsp of oil. Add a few bay leaves and then add half of the chopped onions. Saute for a min.


Then add the juice of a couple of pureed tomatoes. Again here, you can puree 3-4 tomatoes and use half here. We will use the other half of the tomato puree for the cauliflower.


Cook for a couple of mins with the onions. Now add some spices. I added

1/4 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Biriyani Masala - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Mix everything well.


Now, add the rice and mix well along with the tomatoes and onions.



Then, add 2 1/2 cups of water. I took 2 cups of basmati rice. I would normally use 3 cups of water to get pulav rice consistency. But since the puree contains some water, reduce the plain water to 2 1/2 cups.

Cover the rice cooker and cook.


While that is cooking and filling your kitchen with a nice aroma, wash and cut a big cauliflower.


Roughly chop into medium sized florets like this.


Add the rest of the tomato puree to the chopped cauliflower.


Then, add a little bit of all the spices you used for the rice to match the flavors.


Mix well and marinate for atleast 15 mins so that the cauliflower absorbs some of the flavor.


In a wide pan, add a couple of tsps of oil. Then, throw in some chopped ginger and chopped green chillies. Then, add the onions to it and saute for a min.


Now, add the marinated cauliflower in here.


Mix well and let this cook in high heat for about 5 mins - don't over cook it.We are going for crisp cauliflowers! Keep stirring every minute so that they don't burn at the bottom.


Take a look at the rice - how gorgeous does that look?


The florets are done - quick and crisp.


Now add the rice to the cauliflower and mix it all up gently without breaking the rice.


Add some chopped fresh cilantro and mix again.


And just to kick it up one more notch, add a little bit of roasted cashews to the rice for that tasty extra bite!


Serve hot with a side of cool cucumber raitha.






Enjoy. Peace Out!

16 comments:

  1. Looks yummy... wondering if I should start the prep work for it for my hubby's lunch for tomorrow!

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  2. yummo! rice with tomato puree in it invariably tastes good!

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  3. Such a fantastic rice, prefect for lunch boxes, I do similar too, but urs luks too tempting..

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  4. Wow, that was a very colorful and tasty rice. Apreciate ur patience for those illustrative clicks.

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  5. Looks delicious. The cauliflowers looks crunchy as well. I would like to have like that only.

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  6. Never made cauliflower rice way..ahh I always go for short cut :(....looks so yummy...lovely colour

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  7. Am I salivating or am I salivating? Lol :)
    Looks yummmm-O Anu! I cant wait to try it soon. Im drooling like crazy even though I just had my dinner (and psst, dessert too)! I make a similar rice dish with just the onion and tomatoes. Adding gobis to it is like the best thing that could ever happen to it!!

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  8. lovely and yummy mouth watering cauliflower rice.

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  9. Looks yummy and this is nice idea of using cauliflower to the tomato based rice.. looks reall yumm.. ur dishes in my to do list is increasing anu. And I do cauliflower rice totally different will post soon.

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  10. ThankQ so much for posting this wonderful rice recipe! Yesterday was our weekend here and I made this for lunch - my hubby said it was way better than the veg fried rice we had ordered the previous night. I loved it so much that I had it for lunch, dinner and today for lunch again!

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  11. great pics..
    Pl accept an award I have for u on my blog....

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  12. Easy receipe with gr8 pics. Thanks for this :)

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  13. I was searching for cauliflower recipes and landed in this page. I used to make a cauliflower rice, quite different from this one. I'm definitely trying this one.

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  14. I made this for lunch today and it has come out very well. I added some frozen green peas too while the rice was cooking. I wish the tomatoes I used gave more color to the rice. The taste is very good. Thank you very much for the recipe.

    Another thing, I didn't know how to sautee onions and stuff in the rice cooker. I have the small Rival brand. The warm mode was not hot enough to cook the onions and tomatoes. So I mixed everything together with some ghee and oil and cooked it and the rice did come out well.

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  15. Thank you Madhuram for trying. To saute the onions in the rice cooker, just add some oil, add the onions and close the rice cooker - open in about 5 mins - th onions would get the needed heat by then. And then you can add the rice and mix well.

    Thanks again for trying. That's the best compliment anyone can get!

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