Roasted Cauliflower Rice

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Roasting cauliflower is one of the most popular ways to cook this vegetable, so it only makes sense to roast it when you rice it. For most veggies, roasting brings out more flavor than sautéing ever could. That’s because the heat in the oven caramelizes and browns them.

Rice is usually in the background as a base for more exciting ingredients, but when you roast cauliflower rice grains, they instantly get personality. Roasted cauliflower is nutty and each bite has some crunch too.

To keep the recipe simple, I stir in sun dried tomatoes, olives and artichokes. These antipasti ingredients have already been marinated/cured/roasted, so they add a lot striaght from the jar. All you have to do is chop them.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Cauliflower: Look for a fresh head of cauliflower that doesn’t have any brown or soft spots. Just trim the leaves and the very bottom off the stem. Then pretty much nothing goes to waste because you rice the full stems and florets.
• Dried spices: Before the cauliflower roasts, I season it with garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt and black pepper. This mix enhances its natural flavor and gives it something more to go with the rest of the ingredients.
• Sun dried tomatoes either come packed in oil in jars or dried and you have to rehydrate them. I always buy them in oil. Use a fork to take them out of the jar and chop them. You don’t need the oil. 
• Olives: You can use kalamata olives or a greek olive mix. What’s most is important is that they are pitted.
• Artichokes: Marinated and roasted artichoke hearts are another one of my olive bar favorites. Again use a fork to get them out of the jar, so you leave the oil behind.
• Spinach: I take advantage of the heat of the pan and stir in baby spinach after the rice, tomatoes, olives and artichokes finish in the oven. You can substitute with baby arugula.
• Parsley: Along with the spinach, I add fresh herbs. You can also include basil and/or chives.
• Olive oil: For the best flavor, go with a high quality extra virgin olive oil.

Ingredient Variations

Roasted cauliflower has a mild flavor that works with lots of different vegetables. You can make the recipe as written with sun dried tomatoes, olives and artichokes or try one or more of these suggestions.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them for 25-30 minutes until they are lightly browned and tender. Then increase the oven temperature to 425 degrees F and roast the cauliflower rice.

• Butternut squash: peeled and diced
• Sweet potatoes: peeled and diced
• Zucchini/yellow squash: diced
• Cherry tomatoes: halved, roast them cut side up on the pan
• You can also add finishing touches that aren’t vegetables such as fresh lemon juice, toasted walnuts or grated parmesan cheese.

Serving

Think of cauliflower rice like any other regular rice side dish except it has more vegetables. It can go with proteins such as chicken, salmon or shrimp. Also, it a vegan and gluten-free side dish, so keep in mind who you are feeding and what you’re pairing with it.

Staying vegetarian, I like to turn this cauliflower rice recipe into a main dish by serving it with a salad such as a lemon arugula salad, classic house salad or an herby white bean salad. 

Leftovers & Storage

Let any leftover cauliflower rice cool to room temperature. Then transfer it to an airtight container. You can keep it in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Either reheat it in the microwave or on a sheet pan in a 350-degree F oven for 5-7 minutes until it’s warm. I prefer the oven because you revive some of the good texture from when you first made it. No matter how you reheat it, always add fresh baby spinach.

You can also eat leftovers cold as a salad. Toss them with baby spinach or arugula. I like to drizzle in a little lemon vinaigrette or balsamic vinaigrette and even sprinkle in toasted walnuts for crunch.