Cauliflower Couscous

I know most people call this cauliflower rice but I gotta tell ya, it looks just like couscous to me and has a surprisingly similar mouthfeel. But let me start at the beginning.

When I went to visit my cousin Rochel in Johannesburg a couple of years ago, she took me shopping with her in a gorgeous supermarket there and I had great fun looking at all the interesting and different ingredients there. Amongst other products, I got my first gander at cauliflower rice which she told me is subsidized by the government on their health programs to try to get the populace to eat healthier. Wow! I was impressed by this but frankly tucked this in the back of my mind, unwittingly letting it simmer. I didn’t think this was in my repertoire and really didn’t think more about it.

As my access to fresh cauliflower expanded, I remembered the cauliflower rice and thought how perfect it would be for both low carb and gluten free people and, of course, as a replacement for rice on Passover as well.

So, I pulled out my trusty but not dusty 😉 food processor to try my hand at my own version of cauliflower rice. First I soaked and washed it and let it drain or drip dry in a colander.

Look how beautiful that veggie is! So, I gave it a shake and patted it dry (not much to pat, it dried nicely) so that it shouldn’t get too watery. Then I put a third of it into the processor so that it shouldn’t get over processed and come out pureed.

And I processed it in careful bursts, not on the ON button but rather the pulse button. This is really important or you might end up with a mushy puree and too bad. So, be patient and pulse, pulse, pulse, checking carefully to be certain it’s not being overprocessed.

Keep peeking in the bowl of the food processor to make sure it’s the right size and using a spatula, scrape it out and repeat till you have processed the whole lot to the correct texture which to me looks amazingly like couscous rather than rice. But that’s okay. And if to you it looks like rice, so be it 🙂 .

How gorgeous is that? I was so excited since it has a light and fluffy texture. I tasted a bit and decided to cook it, raw was too cauliflowery for me.

I put it into a baking pan and baked it on 375 for 25 minutes with a splash of oil and a sprinkling of salt.

Now I know I could’ve added all sorts of spices but I wanted to try this out on my kids (adults all) and some of them are fussy.

It made a huge hit and they all (including DH) said they’d happily eat it again. So there you go, a successful experiment. And yay, a “carb” on your plate. It is tasty and yes, it has the tang of cauliflower but not too overwhelming in flavor at all. I will definitely spice it up more when it’s just me and DH but I know it’ll be awesome with a little butter or sticking to oil and a little tumeric for fabulous color.

As it was, great to go, so this one’s for you Rochel, my love, far away from me in South Africa, but always in my thoughts!

Cauliflower Couscous

One large head of cauliflower or a few smaller ones, washed and dripped dry in a colander, then patted dry and most of the more fibrous bottom cut off so that you have the flowerettes with only a bit of the bottom left (see pics above)

Oil to drizzle, 1-2 tablespoons

a few pinches of salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Take out your food processor, sorry but nothing else will do, not even a blender, I’m afraid. Put one third of the cauliflower flowerettes into the processor and carefully on the pulse button, NOT the ON button, pulse the cauliflower, a few seconds at a time and peek at it, till the cauliflower resembles couscous. Scrape it out into a baking pan and do the next third patiently and scrape out and so on till you’ve done the whole lot and it’s in the baking pan. If you do the whole amount at one go, you will wind up with a puree and some big chunks and it’s a shame to waste your beautiful cauliflower that way. So, this time patience truly is a virtue 🙂 .

Take your pan of cauliflower couscous and sprinkle some oil and salt over the couscous and toss with your hands or 2 spoons till coated.

Put into hot oven and bake approximately 20-25 minutes or until very lightly browned at the edges and lightly cooked. You just really want to take away the raw taste but not to overcook to a mushy consistency. You will have a slightly sweet, almost nutty flavor.

Serve hot like a couscous carb.