Fried Cauliflower Rice

I was never convinced by the idea of cauliflower 'rice'.  And to be honest, when I first tried it, it was rank, tasteless mush, and a poor replacement for real rice.  But I persevered with it because I was trying to reduce carbs in my diet, and this was an easy alternative. This is my way of improving it, making it something I wanted to eat!  I use frozen peas, sweetcorn and onions for convenience, but you can use pretty much any vegetable you like - mushrooms, peppers, leeks, spring onions - anything you can chop finely.  You can use this in place of any savoury rice dish, like with a curry or chilli.  Or, I like to add some chopped cooked ham, bacon or chicken and have it as a meal in its own right.

Ingredients

1 whole large cauliflower, broken down into florets
100g peas
100g sweetcorn
100g chopped onions
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbps sunflower oil (you can make this without oil if you like)
1-2 eggs (optional)
Pinch of black pepper

Method

1. Either grate the raw cauliflower, or pulse the florets in a food processor until it is in small, rice-like pieces.

2. In a wok or frying pan, heat up the sunflower oil (if using) on a high heat.  Add the onions, peas and sweetcorn and cook for around 5 minutes until the onions are soft, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the cauliflower and black pepper to the pan, then pour over the soy sauce and stir until the soy sauce has coloured all the cauliflower evenly (it will be a light brown colour), and the vegetables are evenly spread.

4.  Cook for a further 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the cauliflower is cooked.  Don't cook for too long or the cauliflower will go a bit mushy, which while it tastes OK, isn't the texture of fried rice that we're looking for.

5.  If you are using eggs, beat them first, then drizzle over the 'rice' just before the end of cooking.  Stir the egg through quickly, and they should form tiny pieces of cooked omelette, similar in size to sweetcorn kernels.  The eggs only take a very short time to cook in these small chunks - no more than a minute.