I make no secret of the fact that sometimes I’m a lazy daisy,
and although I can be a lazy daisy, I don’t cook a lot of processed, convenience
foods. I’m not saying I never use processed
foods, just not often; sometimes a girl's gotta have her KD…just keepin' it real!
I feel that it is important to eat real food, but I do have
short cuts, things that I do to make cooking a good healthy dinner more
simple. One of my favorite shortcuts is
to cook a big batch of something, and use it in two different dinners.
For example; a couple of nights before I had made a big
batch of lentils for this salad, not having any idea of what I would make with the
leftovers, but knowing that lentils are very versatile and can be reheated, or
eaten cold. And then the night before
making Indian Cauliflower Fried Rice I made a big batch of rice for dinner with
the intention of making fried rice the next evening.
Because it utilizes leftovers, Indian Cauliflower Fried Rice
goes together in just minutes. This dish
is super healthy and can stand alone as a meal, but it also makes a delicious
side dish to serve with lamb, chicken or beef.
Fragrant spices perfume the dish, but are not over powering,
so that the whole family will enjoy this dish. Truth is that I looove Indian
food, and Billy won’t even try it, and while I don’t think that Indian Cauliflower
Fried Rice is an authentic Indian dish, I am thinking that by introducing Billy
to Indian ingredients and spices in dishes that are more familiar to him I’ll
eventually get him to try some authentic Indian dishes; I know that once he
tries it he’ll love it too!
So I guess what we’ve discovered is that I’m not only lazy,
but also sneaky…a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!
Here’s what you do.
I also had leftover cooked black lentils from a couple of nights before, but use what ever kind of lentils that you have. |
Start by heating some grape seed oil over medium-high heat and then stir fry some cauliflower which has been seasoned with a pinch of salt. |
When the cauliflower is golden brown, add the shallot, garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, and cayenne pepper; cook until the shallot is soft. |
Stir in the rice and lentils; cook and stir for a couple of minutes, just until the rice has a little color. |
Stir in a little soy sauce, I prefer low-sodium. |
Stir the eggs, keeping them in the well, until the eggs are cooked. |
Then stir the eggs in and add a quite a bit of chopped parsley. |
INDIAN CAULIFLOWER FRIED
RICE
Serves 2 as an entrée, 4 as a side dish
1 ½ Tbsp. Grape seed oil
2 cups Cauliflower, cut into small bite sized
pieces
Salt
to taste
3 Tbsp. Shallot, minced (about 1 large shallot)
1 clove Garlic, minced
½ tsp. Ground cumin
½ tsp. Ground coriander
½ tsp. Dried thyme
A few pinches Cayenne pepper
2 cups Leftover cooked rice
1 cup Cooked lentils
1 Tbsp. Low sodium soy sauce
2 Eggs,
slightly beaten (optional)
¼ cup Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
3 Tbsp. Fried onions, such as French’s or Ikea (optional)
1. Heat the grape
seed oil in a large skillet (non-stick works well) over medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower with a pinch of salt, cook,
stirring frequently until the cauliflower is golden brown, (3 to 5
minutes). Stir in the shallot, garlic,
cumin, coriander, thyme, and cayenne pepper, cook until the shallot is soft (less than a minute). Add the rice and lentils, stir
and cook until they are heated through and the rice has just a little color on
it, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the soy
sauce.
2. Make a well in the
center of the rice mixture, exposing the bottom of the skillet. Pour the beaten eggs into the well, and stir
them as you would scrambled eggs until they’re cooked. Now work the eggs completely in with the rice
mixture along with the parsley. Remove
from the heat and transfer to a serving dish, or dishes, and garnish with the
fried onions.
You may also like:
You may also like:
Vegetable Fried Rice |
Mushroom Quinoa |
Cauliflower Mac & Cheese |
Peanut Sesame Noodles |
Sign me up, sister! I love fried rice and cauliflower, so this meal looks absolutely perfect to me! :)
ReplyDeleteLooks and sounds like a wonderful, tasty dish and a great ideas left overs.
ReplyDeleteColiflower is one of my favorite veggies and combines so well with rice.
I love fried rice! This looks super, Kari. I love the addition of black lentils.
ReplyDelete