Rainbow Cauliflower Rice Bowl
The sort of meal I crave after a travel stint. Lightly cooked cauliflower is chopped, then tossed, with turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and a touch of ghee - add sliced avocado, hard-boiled eggs, toasted seeds, rainbow chard stems, lettuces.
This is the sort of meal I crave after a travel stint. It's when I end up lingering around the produce section even longer than usual in an effort to cherry-pick the most vibrant ingredients. In this case, rainbow chard with electric pink stems, a tight head of pale yellow cauliflower, just-cut chives - green, tall, and straight. The perfect avocado. I think we can all agree, these types of rainbow bowls are all about finding good ingredients. Here's how it played out.
Let's Make Cauliflower Rice
Lightly cooked cauliflower is chopped, then tossed with turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and a touch of ghee - although, you could certainly, use coconut or olive oil. The cauliflower is the base to which you add whatever else you might have at hand - sliced avocado, hard boiled eggs, toasted seeds, rainbow chard stems, lettuces. While the cauliflower was steaming, I pureed the chives with olive oil for a finishing drizzle. It's a bowl exploding with color and freshness, light and bright with enough substance to keep me feeling A+ throughout the afternoon....Enjoy! -h
More Rice Bowl Recipes
Rainbow Cauliflower Rice Bowl
You'll have plenty of chive oil leftover. It's great over eggs, swirled into salted yogurt, on just about any salad, and on and on. To make this vegan, use olive oil, or coconut oil in place of the ghee, and swap out the egg.
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- cayenne pepper, to taste
- fine grain sea salt, to taste
- 1 teaspoon ghee, coconut oil, or olive oil
- 1 bunch of chives
- 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into eights
- Some or all of the following: little lettuces or micro greens, sliced chard stems, sliced avocado, toasted seeds, hard-boiled egg.
- Fresh lemon juice
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Combine the turmeric, cumin, generous pinch of cayenne and salt, with the ghee in a large bowl. Set aside. Puree the chives with the olive oil and another pinch of salt in a blender. Blend well, and set aside.
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Either steam the cauliflower until tender, about 7 minutes. Alternately, cook in a pot of lightly salted water until tender, just 2 minutes or so. Drain and proceed. I also cook chard stems along with the cauliflower at this point, if using - just until tender. When cool enough to handle, transfer the cauliflower to a cutting board, and chop into small, rice-sized pieces. Transfer to the bowl containing the spices, and stir, stir, stir. Until everything is equally coated. Taste, and add more salt if needed.
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To serve, toss any lettuces with a bit of the chive oil and arrange in individual bowls (or on a family-style platter). Add the cauliflower rice, as well as any avocado, hard boiled eggs, seeds, and/or chard stems. Drizzle with more of the chive oil, and finish with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
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Perfect for a very hot summer day. With a minor swap of some leftover beets for the chard and the addition of a small amount of feta, absolutely delicious! !!! I can see myself coming back to this again and again.
I have some of the green sauce from your fritatta recipe in the freezer. Do you think it would go well instead of using the chive oil here?
Absolutely!
sorry just want to note that this under vegan but there are clearly eggs in it? nice recipie but for future reference maybe you would like to put it under vegetarian rather?
HS: Hi Erica – please have a look at the headnote. There are a couple little tweaks recommended for a vegan version. Enjoy!
This is a lovely recipe! It made the inspiration for what I had for dinner tonight–cauliflower rice according to your recipe on corn tortillas with black beans, red cabbage, slices of avocado, and a dollop of yogurt with lemon and tahini mixed in. The best part was that I still felt light and energetic afterwards because of all the vegetables 🙂
Thoughtful simplicity is how I’d describe your recipes. That’s also what makes them stand out for me. I love the chive oil and the spiced ghee you mix the cauliflower in here. We have lots of rainbow chard at the markets here too so I know how I’ll use them next!
Just made this last night with beautiful orange cauliflower, rainbow chard with the stems, fresh favas sauteed with green garlic and shallots, the avocado, egg, micro greens, sungold cherry tomatoes. My husband was hesitant when I showed him the recipe, but he wolfed it down and loved it. It was a lovely bowl. You never cease to amaze me with your fabulous recipes. I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for over 9+ years and have all your cookbooks. You’re a staple in our kitchen Heidi. Thank you for everything to do.
HS: Thanks for the kind note Cheri! Your version sounds A+….so happy you enjoyed it. 🙂
I just love your recipes…
This mean looks very delicious and light. I eventually tried it this morning with my wife and we really enjoyed it. By the way, we loved your photos. What kind of camera did you use for them?
What protein sources would be good instead of the egg? I frequently have eggs for breakfast so don’t want more. Would you toss the alternate protein in the turmeric mix to give it a little more pizzazz?
HS: Hi Lisa – you might swap in any alternate protein you like! I sometimes do tofu, but it’s easily adaptable to whatever your preference.
This also looks like the type of meal I like to eat after a long week at work. I just feel more vibrant looking at it.
I tend not to eat well while traveling and end up doing the same thing – spending a lot of time in the produce aisle to stock up on fresh veggies for a week of endless salads. And this one is so beautiful! I’ve never used thought of using chard stems in a salad, but what a great idea – and so pretty!
Just a quarter teaspoon of ghee, and spices, for the whole head of cauliflower? I wouldn’t have thought that would be nearly enough to coat the cauli, and that the flavours would disappear against the chives and oil. I’ll up the both of them when I try it!
HS: Hi Eadie – I have 1 teaspoon ghee & 1/4 teaspoon of the spices- but completely feel free to up either. IN this case I’m a fan of the idea that you can always add, but it’s hard to take away ;)….
So pretty! Buying the ingredients tomorrow! Yum!
Can’t wait to try this! Beautiful!
I love cauliflower! Looks Delish! Missing more recipes like quinoa patties, millet croquettes and scrumptious dumplings. Please more like those!! They are great travel food!
I haven’t gotten to this whole cauliflower thing yet and I really should. When I got my first apartment and didn’t yet know how to cook, I would steam a head of cauliflower and eat it with a little butter, salt and pepper. I love cauliflower.
And Swiss chard–I always see it, so pretty in our market in Carcassonne, yet I pass it by. Why? I will pick some up tomorrow! Plus, I have a recipe for the leaves–little packets of cheesy, creamy onion, tied with chives.
This is just absolutely beautiful woman! I can’t wait to make it. Your flavor profiles never, ever disappoint so I know I’ll like it. Thanks for sharing, Sandra
I love cauliflower used as base for a bowl! I usually chop it finely in a food processor, than boil for 1 minute 🙂
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