Cauliflower fried rice

Here’s a clever version of one of our favourite takeaways, using cauliflower instead of regular rice to cut the calories. We wanted to make this a one-pot dish but found it was better to cook the cauli ‘rice’ separately to add at the end – and washing that extra pan burns a few more calories!

Info

Serves
4
Calories
127 per serving

Ingredients

  • 1 medium cauliflower (about 500g)
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced into strips
  • 200g button mushrooms, wiped clean and halved if large
  • 4 spring onions, cut into rounds
  • 2cm fresh root ginger, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp Chinese five-spice
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 100g frozen peas, defrosted in just-boiled water
  • a few drops of sesame oil
  • coriander leaves
  • flaked sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

To serve

  • soy sauce
  • chilli sauce

Method

  1. First make the cauliflower rice. Divide the cauliflower into florets, put these in a food processor and blitz into crumbs. Coat the bottom of a wide shallow frying pan with water (no more than 50ml), place it on the heat and add the blitzed cauliflower in an even layer. Cook, stirring fairly regularly, until the cauliflower is tender and has a dry and fluffy texture.

  2. Meanwhile, start the stir-fry. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok. When it is smoking, add the red pepper, mushrooms and spring onions. Stir-fry until the veg are softened and browning round the edges, then add the ginger and garlic and cook for a further minute. 

  3. Sprinkle in the Chinese five-spice and season with salt and pepper. Push everything to one side and pour the egg into the wok, making sure it is over direct heat. Let the egg set on the underside, then break it up. Continue to do this until all the egg is cooked. Add the peas and the cauliflower rice and toss everything together for a couple of minutes until piping hot.

  4. Add a dash of sesame oil and a few coriander leaves and serve at once. Put some soy sauce and chilli sauce on the table so everyone can help themselves.