Meat Free Monday: Spicey Riced Cauliflower and Bean Tacos

Shortly after starting this blog, my husband and I started doing the 17 Day Diet.  This brought me to using cauliflower to replace a lot of things, i.e. pizza crust, bread, and rice. (search cauliflower on this blog for more recipes) This is one of my favorite recipes with riced cauliflower thus far.  It is a great low carb side dish with bean tacos for Meat-Free Monday.

 Spicey Riced Cauliflower

1 head of cauliflower

1 small onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 bell pepper diced ( I used orange)

1 15 oz can of corn or 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn

1 24 oz. jar of diced tomatoes (I used Bella Terra Organic Roasted Garlic diced tomatoes that I found at Meijer in their special Italian section.  You can use any diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes which this was a combo of both)

1 tbsp of chili powder

1 tsp of cumin

1 to 4 tsp of Chipotle pepper powder (you can also use cayenne or adobo instead or completely omit) 

salt to taste 

1 to 3 tbsp of olive oil or coconut oil

optional: 1 cup of black beans, cilantro to taste, jalapenos 

"ricing" cauliflower

Remove leaves from cauliflower and cut into chunks that will fit in your  food processor.  Process with either the s-blade or with the grating disc.  I have done both but like the size with the grating disc better.  

Dry fry (no oil) in a skillet on medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn't burn.  This will evaporate some of the water and gives it a more rice-like texture.  Put cauliflower in a bowl.

Add oil to the pan and make a sofrito with the onion, garlic, bell peppers.  Saute on medium until onions are translucent and soft.  Add diced jalapenos if using.  Add tomatoes, corn, and beans if using.  Stir.  Add Chili Powder, Chipotle, and Cumin.  Add the cauliflower back in.  Stir to coat.    If sauce it too thick, add a 1/4 cup of water at a time. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes or under the sauce is the consistency of the first photo in this post, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn.  

Add cilantro and salt to taste.  Serve with bean tacos for a perfect Meat-free Monday meal.  You can also make ahead.  We ate the leftovers about 5 days after I made this and they were still yummy.

*thank you to my husband, Rob, for taking photos for me.