Continuing my mission to try and evaluate every cauliflower item available at Trader Joe’s, occupying the brand’s huge and increasing array of choices, appears to be a challenging task. For those who aren’t culinary geeks or cannot keep up with the newest food trends, cauliflower became a niche all into itself for vegan and gluten free eaters. Forget about potatoes, kale or broccoli, cauliflower is racing ahead of them all in terms.
Trader Joe’s, never one to shy away from a food trend, has run with the cauliflower craze like nobody’s business. I don’t know how many cauliflower infused products they have but it has to be over 20 at this point. The freezer section is full of them.
I’m not one to shy away from Asian inspired food and any type of stir fry or fried rice or anything like that I immediately grab. I didn’t have much hope for this. I’ve had other things like this, and they tend to be watery and bland. Cauliflower has a lot of water in it, a lot more than rice, and when you start cooking the cauliflower tends to just turn to mush.
I don’t know what Trader Joe’s did to this riced cauliflower stir fry, but it works (with caveats). I followed the directions (you do not want to microwave this unless you cooked it already, it will just get watery) by adding some oil to a saute pan and dumping everything in. The KEY to making this work is 2 things. Protein and cooking the riced cauliflower long enough to dry it out. Make sure when you saute it, make sure it’s sizzling and all the water has evaporated otherwise it will be a mushy mess.
The other thing this is missing is any type of protein. I don’t care how you roll, but this dish needs something to stick to your bones be it tofu, pork, chicken, or shrimp. Hell, even a fried egg on top would be good. One last thing, it’s a little bland. I put some chili flakes, soy sauce, and ketchup (yes, ketchup. Originally from Malaysia, it’s a staple and a lot of southern Asian cooking).
I don’t have anything against rice and in fact, I eat a lot of it, but if rice was to disappear from the face of the earth, this would make a very good substitute. I will give this 8 Bells!
