Does cauliflower rice taste like cauliflower.....

amyrebeccah wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

ASKyle wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

amyrebeccah wrote: »

I mix it half and half with rice, and don't notice the flavor at all. For the person who asked why rice it, I don't like the texture of large steamed florets.

Interesting. I really do, although I sautee or roast more often (and occasionally like it raw, especially with baba ghanoush).

This thread is making me wonder if maybe the main advantage of ricing is for people who don't really like cauliflower?

Could be, but my bet is people are ricing it to save some calories on actual rice.

But again, you don't need to actually rice it to do that. I almost never eat rice and eat lots of cauliflower. When I decided I didn't like rice enough to waste calories on it very often, I didn't replace it with mock rice -- it never crossed my mind to do that.

I admit realizing that people were using the food processor instead of messing around with a ricer made it make a little more sense to me (I've riced potatoes and found it a pain), but in the "what keeps you from cooking more" thread cleaning up seems to be a popular answer, and one reason I'd use cauliflower in the kinds of recipes that are being discussed without ricing it (even in the food processor) is that I have fewer things to have to clean up. (Similarly, I would not bother making zucchini noodles -- I might eat the same foods with zucchini sliced.)

But I think I have a thing about "mock" foods also that others don't have, that for some reason that just is different from how my mind works mimicking the look of foods that are being replaced is appealing to some people. And that's cool--I'm not being critical. Just lazy, like I said.

Frankly, I usually buy it pre-riced and frozen, and it's less work for me than cutting up florets like you're talking about (and as I've mentioned, I like the texture better than steamed florets. I also can't digest it raw, and sometimes roasted doesn't work in the recipe). I get that you don't like someone using the term "rice" to describe cauliflower, but that seems a bit hypertechnical, doesn't it?

I actually haven't objected to using the term rice to describe cauliflower, so you seem to be reading something into my questions that is not there. Ricing is the appropriate term, as it refers to the way it's cut, so cauliflower rice seems correct to me. What I was asking about it why bother ricing it when it tastes the same -- the desire to mimic the look of rice (or in the case of zucchini noodles, pasta, or in the case of mashed cauliflower, potatoes) doesn't appeal to me, although I think I was quite clear that I don't see anything wrong in it appealing to others. I was just curious why.

I have never seen it for sale pre-riced, although I noticed that you (but not the majority of posters) said you bought it that way. Obviously, that would make it not more work, so is one answer to why bother with the extra work/clean up (you aren't). And as I said above, that was my main curiosity about this. It still wouldn't appeal to me personally, probably, although I might pick it up to try on a whim, but buying that makes sense if it does appeal to you or has a preferable texture to you.

I think it depends on how you prepare the cauli rice. The first time I ate it, I got the idea from a weird vegan site where you were supposed to put kung pao veggies on top of raw riced cauliflower. That was vile. But now when I make it, I throw in all kinds of seasonings. Sometimes I make a curried cauli rice with pineapple; other times I make lime cilantro cauli rice. This morning I made an amazing "fried rice" version with mushrooms, ginger, onion, jalapeno, soy, vinegar, fish sauce and cilantro. I've had any number of friends think cauli rice was real rice when I served it to them.

It tastes like cauliflower because it is cauliflower. However, cauliflower is very mild so if you are cooking it with other things, adding soy sauce, etc it isn't going to be very noticeable flavor.
Zucchini also has a very mild flavor.

michelle172415 wrote: »

I like to sauté mine after it's riced in some butter with whatever herbs/spices I have on hand. The cauliflower flavor is so mild that it is easily masked by other stronger flavors.

This is exactly what we do, and we love it.

If I have cauliflower rice it is always when I make a curry because plain it's not that nice but with the sauce and chicken it's yummy