Power Packed Cauliflower Fried Rice

10 Min Recipe that is Keto Friendly | Low Carb| Good Protein | Vitamin ++

Recipe @ YouTube

This recipes is a hot favorite with many weight watchers right now and health food morons such as mua 🙂

This cauliflower rice (no rice added) is a good and a healthy substitute to your Chinese fried rice cravings, without actually being fried!

What makes it even great, is the versatile quality of cauliflower to adapt different flavors. Mix it with dark soy or oyster sauce or with sweet chili, it all blends in well.

Ah! This dish takes meats and no meats of your choice too and is extremely simple to toss-up with veggies of your choice.

I was at a detox spa recently www.healthoasisresort.com, fasting for 10 days along with many other cleansing rituals. Post our (cousin and i on a #detoxholiday) detox, we were served this dish with all things organic, msg free and fresh.

Our body needed to activate it’s good bacteria development process and thus with this power packed cauliflower rice we were served a bowl of sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) as a natural probiotic.

Ofcourse, we were famished with 10days of fasting and thus the first food morsels we ate had to be memorable. But trust me you all with relish it as much as I did even though the context will be totally different 😉

Here is what we need!

Pre-Prep Time : 15 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs (preferably organic & Omega3 rich, especially for Keto folks) | vegetarians & Vegans can use Tofu instead (200grms)
• 1 large Onion, diced
• 1 spring onion, chopped fine with the stems
• 1 tsp, ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp, coconut oil or Sesame seed or olive oil (virgin, cold pressed)
• I large cup of mixed veggies of your choice, chopped fine
• Carrots, pumpkin, red & yellow peppers, red cabbage
• Others that can be used are frozen peas, asparagus, broccoli, green cabbage
• 2 medium head sized cauliflower (to make it into rice)
• 2 tsp burnt garlic (keep it fried, we will use it for garnish)
• 2 tbsp dark soya sauce (MSG free if possible) or Tamari
• 2 tsp oyster sauce (optional vegetarians & Vegans can skip)
• 1 Tomato, cut into long thin slices
• Himalayan Pink Salt to taste
• Black Pepper, freshly crushed
• A few fresh coriander leaves
• 1 lemon wedge
• a few roasted cashews

Method:

• Wash & clean the cauliflower. Drain and dry the water completely before cut the head into florets.
• Making cauliflower into rice :

1. a) grate them fine, finer than what you do to make “gobhi paranthas” (now go check with your respective moms’ for the grating process)

OR

1. b) pound the florets in a food processor for a few churns. The texture of the cauliflower should be like cous cous or rice consistency.

• Getting the moisture out of the raw cauliflower is key as our next step. I suggest spreading all of the riced cauliflower onto a kitchen towel and then using your own body weight as the force to drain the moisture out
• Now take a skillet and add the ½ tbsp oil of your choice, once the oil is heated, add the minced ginger
• One the ginger starts sizzling, add the diced onion and stir till the onions soften and turn yellow
• Now break 2 eggs into the skillet and scramble them in on high flame till cooked. Your stirring will break the eggs into small pieces and make it look like unda bhurjee. Once done, push the cooked egg mixture on one side of the pan/skillet.
• Add rest of the oil and heat it slightly to add the vegetables one after the other. Add carrots, then stir in the cut pumkin and cook for 3-4 mins. Follow it by adding the red cabbage, bell peppers and some spring onions. Stir-fry this colorful and vitamins rich skillet for another 2 mins and later mix the eggs into the vegetables.
• Now its time for some seasoning, add salt pepper to taste, the soya and oyster sauce and stir well.
• Add the cauliflower into the skillet and increase the flame. Stir in well to mix the cauliflower rice with the vegetables and sauces. Add extra sauces if your palate demands so. Cooks for 5 mins
• On the 4^th min do remember to add some fresh tomatoes in the skillet preparation and stir in well with some coriander leaves. Put the lid on to the skillet and let it rest for 2 more minutes.
• Our power packed Cauliflower rice is now ready! Remove from the heat, fill the rice in a deep bowl and set it right
• Now its time for garnish : plate the rice upside-down (from the bowl) and garnish the surface with spoon full of burnt garlic, half a lemon wedge, some spring onions and some fresh coriander leaves
• Serve the fried rice with some fermented vegetables like kimchi or sauerkraut (good for the gut) or some fresh slices of cucumber. 

#Variations:

• Vegans & vegetarians can use tofu scramble instead of eggs
• Meat eaters, you can add shrimps| chicken ,sauté separately in any sauce of your choice
• Using Tamari sauce makes the dish Gluten Free too
• If you don’t like the burnt garlic taste, add garlic right at the beginning with ginger

#Tip:

The key to this recipe is using fresh vegetables (organic preferable) and NO OVER COOKING!

If possible keep the grated cauliflower ready a day prior in the refrigerator, wrapped in a kitchen towel so that max moisture is out and your rice stays nice and crunchy once cooked.

Enjoy this scrumptious dish as your lunch or dinner!!”

 

Homemade Breakfast Cereal

A healthty filling and a nutritious breakfast!

Can be had with hot/cold milk or with yoghurt too.

   
 

  
Ingridents:

Rye flakes : 200grms

Barley flakes : 200grms

Rolled Oats : 200grms

Oats bran : 150 Grms

Granola flavoured (of your choice) : 200 Grms 

Mixed Nuts (crushed): almonds, walnut ,pecan (all or either) : 100grms

Mixed seeds : pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesamee seeds : 75grms

Black raisins a fist full.

Mix all well in a dry blow and pack in an air-right jar, ready to serve with yoghurt or milk.

   

   

Indian Summer Cooler

So it’s 33degrees Celsius outside and feels like 41! Time to churn some yogurt into a refreshing green glass.

  

Traditional chach made with ginger, curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and a green chilly roasted in half-a-teaspoon of oil. Added to yogurt with fresh mint leaves, coriander leaves, black salt, pepper and cumin powder.

Churned with water and ice in a blender and seved with a healthy topping of flax, sunflower,pumpkin, sesame seeds and goji berries!

Quinoa for dinner.

Finally the chefs cap is back!

Cottage cheese seasoned with Teriyaki  ginger juice, pepper and pakchoy. Garnished with spring onions and oyster sauce.

Served with quinoa mixed with exotic vegges and glazed with olive oil and balsamic and fresh mint leaves.

Plated with shavings of lettuce on the side.

Bon Apetit!

 

Nutritious Smoothie In a jar

A healthy breakfast, mid-evening snack or a desert. This nutritiously delicious jar can be made with variety of fresh and dry fruits.

This one in particular was made with 2 seasonal fruits : Dates and Figs
Both fruits, naturally sweet calls for no added sugar!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup yogurt ( I prefer using the ready-made yogurt like Nestle etc.)
2 pieces, de-seeded Dates
1 fresh fig, washed , cleaned, de-skinned and cut into halves
2 tbsp mixed nuts (almonds, walnut,hazelnut)
Honey 1 tsp (optional)
Cinnamon powder
Mint leaves form decoration.

In a magic bullet (blender) blend the yogurt into a smooth paste. Add the cut fruits and blend again, now add the nuts and churn quick and intense, the coarse nuts adds a good texture to the smoothie.

If you feel the smoothie is think, add few spoons of milk to loosen a bit. Pour in a jar and drizzle some cinnamon powder or nutmeg powder.
Serve chilled with a leave of basil or mint.

Cucumber & Dill Salad

This refreshing server can be added to your mezze platter with easy and beauty.
Chop 2 cucumber with the skin into thin slices.
For the dressing, whisk 2 tbls of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbs of Rice wine vinegar or Red wine vinegar, 1 tsp of brown sugar, red chilli flakes and the dill leaves ( washed and chopped fine).

Soak the cucumber in the dressing overnight for the pickled flavour, sever cold with a dip of your choice.

Crispy Flatbread – Greek Style

This flatbread serving was an excellent appetiser for a Sunday brunch. I like working on one wholesome starter than many small nibbles.

Flatbreads were whole-wheat tortillas purchased from the super-market, it’s faster, convenient and gets crisp well enough to not miss the authentic thin crust.

The recipe is fairly simple and so are the ingredients…so I am not going to this is a typical ‘ingrédients & préparation’ style.

The base I used was of fresh homemade hummus, the recipe shared before can be seen via this link: https://indianbornconfusedgourmet.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/homemade-hummus-and-crispy-pita-bread/

Before layering the tortilla with hummus, spray for garlic olive oil on both sides.

Now top the hummus layer with peppers, olives, roasted pine nuts, caramelised onions, jalapeños.
Sprinkle some Greek seasoning, chilli flakes and some mozzarella cheese. Grill in a pre-heated conventional oven for 8-10 mins at 180 degree.C.

Once 80% done, top the flatbread with a few rocket and fresh basil leaves and dollop some feta cheese.

Grill for another 2 mins and server with a drizzle of chilli-garlic olive oil.
Which I usually pre-prepare and stock, to be used with different preparations.

Melon Sangaria with a hint of Ginger & Sage

So Sunday brunch parties have to start with a good cooler. I love to serve Pimm’s (A well know British liquor) with cucumber or orange. So this time the mood was set on Melon (Honey Dew) the seasonal fruit.

One can do a mix of different melons like watermelon, honey due and musk melon, but I stuck to just one and worked on enhancing that flavour.

So lets get the ingredients ready :

Chilled White Wine (750ml), one can use any dry white wine for making sangaria.

Melon Liquor 80ml , Midori the Japanese brand is amongst the best or else Joseph Carlton is great too.

1 fresh melon, 1/2 of it cut into thin slim slices and the rest half used to scoop out balls.

Freeze these melon balls and we add when we serve chilled to keep the sangria cool.

A ginger beer or ginger tonic or gingerale.

1 Lemon’s juice and some Lemon Zest

Some sage leaves for garnish.

Preparation:
Take a deep, wide mouth container (jug). Pour the white wine, the melon liquor , ginger beer and the melon juice reserve. While you chopping the melon, do not discard the juice, reserve it aside and in-fact scope some more out.

Add to the mix cut melon strips, few rings of lemon and sage leaves.

Stir well, cover with a lid and refrigerate overnight.

Serve in a frosted wine glass with a chilled ball of melon.

Refreshing Right!!

Bircher Muesli ‘The Breakfast’

Bircher Muesli was developed around 1900 by Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Brenner for his patients and is still a very popular breakfast throughout Switzerland and Germany.
Ever since there have been many variations, however the authentic recipe calls for fresh fruit than grains and soaked the raw oats overnight.

I like to stick to the original as far as possible and have fun with the toppings.

You can have a taste variation with both nuts and fruits. Blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, banana to prunes, dried figs, hazelnuts, pecan nuts, muskmelon seeds and the choice of palate is yours.

Ingredients:
Rolled Oats 2 cups
Juice of one apple
Curd (slim milk) 1 cup
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Milk (slim) 1/4 cup
Honey
1 Coarsely grated apple
Dried Cranberries 1 tbsp
Pecan Nuts or walnuts or almonds and or hazelnuts
Cinnamon Powder 1 tsp
>

Preparation:

Take the rolled oats in a deep bowl. We will soak the oats overnight in curd, lemon and apple juice. Mix well and leave aside in the refrigerator.


In the morning, pull the bowl out stir once and add some milk to your required consistency. Top with grated apple, cinnamon powder, nuts, a tsp of honey and another fruit of your choice. I used dried cranberries with some fresh pomogranate.

Serve chilled. You can also make these and keep in short glasses to be eaten as an energy snack anytime during the day…post a walk or a workout.

Steamed Kale with Tofu in Oyster-Mushroom Sauce

Kale leaves are rocking the Green charts and HOW!

Having heard so much about this leaf and finally spotting this in the store, I tried the apple salad variation with raw kale leaves and the tofu variation the next day with steamed kale leaves.

This queen leaf in rich in iron, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, a good antioxidant, high in fiver, zero fat and a great anti-inflammatory too.

Ingredients:
Kale leaves 250 Grms
Tofu 250 Grms, cut into cubes
Oyster-Mushroom sauce 2 tbsp
Julienne of Ginger 15-20
Sesame oil 3 tsp
White Sesame seeds 2 tsp
White pepper 1 tsp
2 Spring onions finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
Finley chopped Red chilli

Preparation:

Wash clean the Kale leaves and drain them in hot boiling water for 5 mins. Rinse with cold water to retain the green colour.

In a skillet heat some sesame oil and roast the sesame seeds along with ginger and garlic. Stir fry the onions into this mix and add the tofu cubes. Cook in high flame for 3-5 mins adding the oyster-mushroom sauce.

Coarsely chop the kale leaves and add to the skillet. Stir fry adding the seasoning of white pepper and salt. Cook for 3 mins and we are good to go!

Serve with steamed rice or quinoa.