When we first decided to go on a gluten free / casein free diet last July in hopes of finally curing my son of his constantly runny nose and bumpy red arms, I checked out every recipe book I could find in the library that might be of help. I also bought several from Amazon. I also did a lot of research online. Somewhere in the midst of all of my study, I came across mention of cauliflower "rice." So unfortunately, I can't give any credit to where the idea originally came from, but since the first time I made it, it's become a family favorite.
Though I've found recipes online, I don't get nearly as fancy as most of them when I'm cooking this dish. When I make it, I include three ingredients: ghee, cauliflower, and salt.
Step One: Melt a huge wallop of ghee in a fry pan. Because we're doing the GAPS diet, healthy fats are strongly encouraged, so I have no qualms about using a lot. But even when I made this dish before we were on the GAPS diet, I went heavy on the butter... mostly because I just love butter.
Ghee is clarified butter and it's approved for stage two of the GAPS intro diet, so that's what I used. I'm not one for getting all fancy about measuring stuff. So throw in as much ghee or butter as you feel comfortable using. You could also use coconut oil for a coconutty flavor. According to Dr. Natasha, cooking vegetable oils past a certain temperature do more harm than good. So stick to animal fats, butter/ghee, or coconut oil.
Melt the ghee/butter/whatever on medium heat.
Step Four: Sprinkle salt on top and serve. You can eat this on its own or add it to any dish that you might consider putting with rice. It won't soak up sauces like rice does, but it still works surprisingly well in terms of getting along with the same kinds of foods. One of my girls told me this morning that she likes when the poached eggs are gooey enough to mix in the runny yolk with the "rice."
Though I've found recipes online, I don't get nearly as fancy as most of them when I'm cooking this dish. When I make it, I include three ingredients: ghee, cauliflower, and salt.
Step One: Melt a huge wallop of ghee in a fry pan. Because we're doing the GAPS diet, healthy fats are strongly encouraged, so I have no qualms about using a lot. But even when I made this dish before we were on the GAPS diet, I went heavy on the butter... mostly because I just love butter.
Ghee is clarified butter and it's approved for stage two of the GAPS intro diet, so that's what I used. I'm not one for getting all fancy about measuring stuff. So throw in as much ghee or butter as you feel comfortable using. You could also use coconut oil for a coconutty flavor. According to Dr. Natasha, cooking vegetable oils past a certain temperature do more harm than good. So stick to animal fats, butter/ghee, or coconut oil.
Melt the ghee/butter/whatever on medium heat.
Step Two: Grate the cauliflower using a grater or food processor with a grating disk. The goal is just to get little pieces of cauliflower. Don't feel like every single piece needs to pass through the grater. When I'm grating, it's normal to have little bitty florets pop off before I get them near the grater. That's fine, as long as they're small. Throw the bitty bits of cauliflower in with the melted oil. Stir it around to spread the oil evening. Now you can move on to other things for a bit, stirring occasionally to make sure the cauliflower gets a little browned here and there, but nothing darker than that.
You can see in the above photo I was also making homemade yogurt (see the milk in the pan to the right with the thermometer) and on the far right I was making poached eggs to go with our cauliflower "rice."
Step Three: I'm guessing the cooking takes between 5 - 10 minutes. I don't really pay attention since I'm dealing with other stuff at the same time. If there's a wee bit of browned up bits, that's just about where I like the "rice" to be.
You can see the poaching eggs on the right in this next photo. Note the milk has been moved off to cool and the kids lunch is heating up in the center now so I can pack it away for them to take to school.
Step Four: Sprinkle salt on top and serve. You can eat this on its own or add it to any dish that you might consider putting with rice. It won't soak up sauces like rice does, but it still works surprisingly well in terms of getting along with the same kinds of foods. One of my girls told me this morning that she likes when the poached eggs are gooey enough to mix in the runny yolk with the "rice."
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