This quick and easy curry cauliflower rice has a bit of a twist with the addition of quinoa for more protein. It's healthy, satisfying and delicious!
As usual, I feel like I'm a million years behind.
Cauliflower rice. It's been plastered on blogs, Pinterest and cookbooks for ages, but here I am just now jumping on the band wagon.
I honestly, don't know what took me so long. It's kind of a genius health food hack. Almost like a spiralizing a zucchini is to pasta, making rice out of cauliflower gives you that same familiar sensation of eating rice, but you're actually eating cauliflower. Pure genius.
Now I'm by no means an expert in this cauli-rice game yet, BUT I've made this particular curry cauliflower rice at least four times and am pretty much addicted.
Plus it's another one of those super simple dinners, which we can't seem to get enough of lately.
The beauty with cauliflower rice is that you just have to whizz up the florets in a food processor to get that perfect rice-like texture. No real chopping and little mess. My kind of start to meal prep.
Once you've got your “rice”, you usually just steam it, add your flavors and you're done.
I didn't really follow a recipe when I was making mine, so I started by sautéing the cauliflower (and some veggies) in coconut oil, garlic and ginger and then I added my water for steaming. The result? It was surprisingly flavorful before I added any spices so the spices were just elevated.
Once the cauliflower was almost cooked, I added my spices, some peas and some quinoa 🙂
Curry can go a few ways in terms of flavor. Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. This curry cauliflower rice is on the Indian end; I like to think of it as a healthy version of that rice you get in the white takeout containers from your favorite Indian restaurant. If only those places actually served something like this – it would make takeout much more appealing!
But at least you now have options. Whether you want to healthify your takeout order at your next Friday movie night in, or you need a simple weeknight meal, or you just want to jazz up your office lunch, I think you're going to love this cauliflower rice and quinoa combo.
It's satisfying, flavorful and it's made with veggies! Gotta love that 🙂
More Amazingly Delicious Cauliflower Recipes to try:
- Sheet Pan Miso Roasted Vegetable & Cauliflower Rice Bowls
- Vegetable Cauliflower Rice + Quinoa Sushi
- Buffalo Cauliflower Quinoa Mac + Cheese
- Vegan Buffalo Cauliflower + Quinoa Tacos
- Curried Cauliflower & Squash Soup
Curry Cauliflower Rice and Quinoa
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 cup diced carrots about 1 large carrot
- 1/2 cup diced onions about 1/2 medium onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup fresh or frozen peas
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- Red pepper flakes fresh cracked pepper and additional sea salt to taste
- Freshly chopped cilantro optional
- Sliced green onions optional
Instructions
- Remove the leaves and stem from the cauliflower then chop it into small florets. Add the florets to a food processor and process on high until it's the consistency of rice.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots, onion and garlic and saute until onions have started to soften, about 2 minutes. Stir in ginger and cauliflower and saute for 1 - 2 minutes.
- Add water to skillet, bring to a simmer and cover for 10 - 15 minutes until most of the water has evaporated and the cauliflower has softened but still has a slight crunch.
- Stir in the quinoa, peas, spices and tamari and let cook for another 1 - 2 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Stir in some cilantro and fresh green onions if using.
Nutrition
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Great recipe! Will definitely be making this again. I used a frozen bag of Bird’s eye riced cauliflower, used olive oil, and made this early in the day , then just warmed it quickly in the microwave at dinner time. Guests liked it very much. It made enough to serve 7-8 .
Could this dish be served warm?
Absolutely!
The instructions do not include when to add the green peas. I assume it is supposed to be in step #4 with the quinoa ?
The green peas go in with the quinoa!
Hi Alyssa! Yesterday I found a video on youtube of cauliflower bagels. It seemed such a crazy recipe that I decided to try. And it worked! So I thought I’d suggest that recipe for you. What I found is that the amount of water in the cauliflower rice can be an issue. My recipe became too watery so I had to squeeze a lot of liquid from the batter to be able to form the bagels. But I was really amazed that after baking them they would hold their shape. The video I saw was from the Clean and Delicious channel. I don’t know if here’s the best place to make suggestions, tell how you prefer.. I got some other suggestions I’d like to make! Love your recipes! Olivia.
I’ll definitely check that out!!
WHEN DO YOU ADD THE PEAS..??
With the quinoa, sorry about that!
Which Garam Masala did you use? I found a reddish colored one along with a brown one?
Mine is a brownish color 🙂
Absolutely a new favorite…..very aromatic and pleasing to the palate. Only thing missing was when to add the peas in the directions.
Looks great, I plan to make it this weekend! I like to process a large cauilflower & then divide it into single portion sized Ikea freezer bags so that I always have some to hand (thaws in no time at all!) to cook with, it freezes really well!
That’s a great idea, Kim! Would love to hear how the recipe turns out for you 🙂