This Easy Cauliflower Fried Rice Recipe is Delicious (2024)

FAQs

What makes fried rice more flavorful? ›

To give your dish that signature fried rice taste, you'll need to drizzle in sesame oil and soy sauce, but feel free to use as much or as little as you wish. You can even mix in things like garlic powder, ginger root, or Sriracha sauce and chili pepper for a bit of a kick.

One additional step I like is to press any excess moisture from the rice by transferring the cauliflower rice to a large paper towel or absorbent dish towel and squeeze/press to remove any remaining water. This ensures no excess moisture remains, which can make your dish soggy.

In a large skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add the scallions and cauliflower and sauté until heated through, about 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lime juice to help remove any bitterness from the raw cauliflower.

Stirring in fresh lime or lemon juice can add a new dimension to your cauliflower rice. Try adding lime juice and cilantro to make cilantro-lime rice, which works great as a base or a side. Drizzle on sauce. A spoonful of sauce such as chimichurri can mask any cauliflower-iness in the rice.

Though you might not be able to pinpoint the sweet inclusion while digging into a take-out box and piling spoonsful of fluffy rice into your mouth, the addition of sugar is a common culinary technique practiced by restaurants.

The answer: high heat, expert tosses, and something known as 'wok hei. ' As J. Kenji López-Alt writes for Serious Eats, expert cooking with a wok (and the gas range it requires) is one of the main reasons that fried rice from a Chinese restaurant tastes so much better than what you can make at home.

Why is my cauliflower fried rice soggy? You don't want to cook the cauliflower too long, or it might end up too soft. All it takes is about three minutes to make it tender, but don't cook it much longer than that.

The secret to giving cauliflower the perfect texture when battering and frying, is to not parboil it. When you fry cauliflower with batter, it also cooks the cauliflower. So if you parboil beforehand, you will end up with mushy cauliflower.

Substituting cauliflower rice for white rice is a great way to get more antioxidants while reducing calories and carbohydrates in order to save room for other nutrient dense foods.

To mellow the flavor, soak the entire head (leaves removed) in cold, salted water for 30 minutes before steaming. Some of the bitter components will leach out. Soaking cauliflower will also give your cauliflower a snow-white appearance.

How to cover up the taste of cauliflower? ›

Other successful pairings that enhance the faint cauliflower flavor and mask the noxious aroma are extra-virgin olive oil, mild aged vinegar, garlic, oily herbs such as thyme, savory and rosemary, and pungent cheeses.

Garlic: Freshly-minced. Soy sauce: I created this recipe using low-sodium soy sauce. So add less if you're using traditional soy sauce. Oyster sauce: This is a major flavor booster in fried rice and (don't worry) doesn't taste like oysters.

Pick the Right Ingredients

There are three main ingredients of fried rice: eggs, vegetables and meat. Scrambled throughout the rice, eggs bring savory flavors and protein, while vegetables like broccoli, peas, carrots, and edamame add variety and depth to the dish. The more you have, the more robust the flavor.

Toast Herbs and Spices Before or After Cooking

“To give your rice that extra flavor, try dicing herbs like oregano or cilantro into very small pieces and sprinkle them on top of the rice for about five minutes and cover with a lid,” says Cuban chef Luis Pous, partner and executive chef at Calle Dragones Miami.

Aromatics such as onions, shallots, scallions, leeks, and garlic are often added for extra flavor. Various cooking oils, such as vegetable oil, sesame oil, clarified butter, or lard can be used to grease the wok or frying pan to prevent sticking, as well as for flavor.