It is rare that I create a full meal that has zero meat in it, but when I had the idea for this dish I had to give it a try. I am frequently inspired by my classes and job at a farm to table restaurant, but have difficulties with the food since a lot of it is unhealthy or cooked with dairy and poor oils. This past week in my culinary classes we have been doing rice dishes and I have also made a lot of rice at work. Unlike some Paleo people, I don’t hate rice, but since it doesn’t have any nutritional value that is beneficial I tend to lean towards vegetables. So while I was cooking so much rice this past week I was inspired to make this rice dish that was Paleo and just as good as normal rice.

I honestly wasn’t sure if I would like this rice dish with no meat, but the flavors are so amazing they do not need a protein to make it shine. If anything you could top it with a fried egg for the delicious golden yolk. The key to this dish is the carrot puree sauce that goes into the cauliflower rice. It gives the rice body and amazing flavor, so much so that I was eating it with a spoon. This recipe is perfect year round because you could use the base and top it with almost any vegetable that is in season!

Ingredients:

Carrot Puree ingredients:

  1. 1 lb large carrots, peeled and sliced extremely thin
  2. 1 half small diced onion
  3. 1 tsp minced garlic
  4. 1.25 cup of chicken or vegetable broth
  5. 1 TB olive oil
  6. 1 tsp salt
  7. 1 tsp cumin

Other ingredients:

  1. cauliflower rice, I ate a whole frozen bag from Trader Joes
  2. Roasted veggies to top the rice with. I used beets and more colorful carrots
  3. 3 TB chopped almonds

Instructions:

  1. Roast your vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper at 375 until fork tender, around 35 minutes if they are hard root vegetables like carrots and beets
  2. heat a TB of olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat and add your onions, sweat them until they are translucent (sweat means to almost steam, so add a lid to the pot and occasionally stir so there is a lot of moisture). Once translucent, add the minced garlic and stir one minute.
  3. Next add all of your thinly sliced carrots, 1/2 cup of broth (NOT ALL OF THE BROTH) and add the pot lid back, stirring occassionally, let them steam 10 minutes.
  4. After 10 minutes add the salt and cumin, stir and let them sweat until they are easily fork tender (around 10 more minutes). Once they are extremely tender, and most of the liquid is gone, they are ready to blend. 
  5. Place everything in the blender and add the remaining 3/4 cup of stock. Blend until completely smooth and almost a liquid. If you need to add more liquid to thin out, add 1/8 cup of water at a time. The puree should look like the mixture to the right.
  6. Next you want to cook the cauliflower rice. Heat a saute pan with olive oil over medium heat. Add the cauliflower rice and occasionally stir. Once the water begins to release from the cauliflower add seasonings such as salt, pepper, garlic powder, but not too much since we are adding the puree.
  7. Once the cauilflower is cooked through take the pan off the heat and add 6-8 heaping spoonfulls of the carrot puree. Thoroughly mix the puree into the cauliflower rice, adding a few tablespoons of water if it is too thick.
  8. Plate and top with your roasted vegetables and minced Almonds!
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