Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice

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Cilantro lime cauliflower rice is just about the simplest little side dish to serve on taco night or as a base for your low carb burrito bowls!

Is anyone else just completely and utterly in love with Mexican food?

I’m going to go ahead and guess all of you are, because I can’t imagine a world in which people aren’t daydreaming about that goodness all day long.

I’ve been a fan of the burrito joints for a long time. Chipotle was my first love, but then I discovered Qdoba.

Y’all, I know this is controversial, but I think Qdoba is about 3,938 times better than Chipotle. I’m sorry, but it’s just the way it is.

These days, I grab a taco salad with extra meat, some fajita veggies, cheese, guac, and sour cream. It’s delicious and it totally satisfies any cravings I might be having.

I do love that cilantro lime rice though, so I thought I’d recreate it at home.

This cilantro lime rice recipe starts with cauliflower and I think you’re going to love it!

How do you make cauliflower into rice?

You can either start with a whole head of fresh cauliflower or a bag of the fresh cauliflower florets. Frozen cauliflower isn’t a good option for cauliflower rice.

If you’re starting with a head of cauliflower, chop it into florets and then add it to your food processor.

This is the food processor I use (affiliate link) and it’s one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. I use it for grating cheese and slicing veggies all day long.

If you don’t have a food processor, get your knife out and start chopping. And chopping and chopping and chopping until you have tiny little rice like pieces.

I’ve heard that you can also use a box grater to grate the cauliflower, but I haven’t tried this myself and can’t speak to how easy it is.

How to cook riced cauliflower:

Cauliflower rice can be cooked in a skillet on the stove, roasted in the oven, steamed in a stove top steamer or microwaved.

Each method produces rice that tastes just a bit different and they’re all pretty good. My favorite two methods are roasting the rice in the oven and cooking on the stove in a skillet. I think you get a lot more flavor with these two methods.

For this cilantro lime cauliflower rice recipe, we’ll use the stove top method.

You’ll add your rice to a skillet with a bit of olive oil and cook for a couple of minutes while stirring. Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes to get the rice to the texture you prefer.

How to season cauliflower rice:

For this recipe, we’ll obviously be seasoning our cauliflower rice with cilantro and lime. When the rice is done cooking, chop up some cilantro to sprinkle on top and then squeeze on some lime juice.

I like to season the rice with a little onion powder, garlic powder, and salt as well.

You can also make a more traditional Mexican rice by seasoning with cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic, onion, and salt.

Roasting the cauliflower rice with minced garlic makes for a wonderful garlic rice.

Keep it simple, but feel free to experiment!

I’ve even made a cauliflower risotto before and shared it on my other blog, if you’d like to give that a whirl. It’s nowhere near as tricky as a traditional risotto, but it comes out so creamy and delicious.

Why eat cauliflower rice?

It’s a vegetable that tricks you into thinking you’re eating a starch! That’s a good enough reason for me. 😉

Honestly, though, cauliflower rice is a great way to get more veggies in your diet and cut back on those carbs.

It’s healthy, flavorful, and, in my opinion, is easier than cooking traditional rice. It takes less time as well.

If you’re tired of taco salads, swap out the lettuce for this cilantro lime recipe and it feels like a whole new meal.