This cauliflower rice and beans is a delicious lightened up alternative to traditional rice and beans. It's positively packed with flavor and works great as a main or side dish!
This version of rice and beans is my kind of rice and beans. The veggies are the rice. Clever. I became pretty enamored with cauliflower rice a while back when I created a version of cauliflower fried rice. I decided if it works for Chinese food, it should work for Tex-Mex. It did!
For the "rice" part of this dish, I opted to recreate a popular Tex-Mex cilantro lime rice that I've enjoyed eating in many-a-lunch burrito I could not finish. To make a nice-well balanced meal, I added beans and skipped the burrito part, because it's just as nice to eat with a fork, if you ask me.
Ingredients You'll Need
- Cauliflower.
- Olive oil. You can use another high heat oil if you prefer, like coconut, corn, or avocado oil.
- Red onion.
- Garlic.
- Salt & pepper.
- Lime juice. Make sure to use freshly squeezed lime juice, as the bottled stuff just doesn't have the same flavor.
- Black beans. We're using canned or precooked black beans, to make life easy. Feel free to cook yours from scratch if you'd like.
- Fresh cilantro.
How It's Made
This dish is super simple to whip up.
- Use a food processor to chop your cauliflower into tiny, rice-sized pieces. You'll probably need to work in batches!
- Sauté diced red onion in olive oil for a few minutes, then add minced garlic and ook it for about 1 minute.
- Add the cauliflower rice, along with the salt and pepper. Stir-fry the mixture for a few minutes until it starts to crisp.
- Add the lime juice and beans. Cook everything a minute or so more, just to heat up the beans.
- Take your cauliflower rice and beans off of heat and add fresh cilantro. You can also add more salt if you'd like, or adjust any other seasonings to suit your taste.
- Serve and enjoy!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover cauliflower rice and beans will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Cauliflo
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Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice & Beans
Ingredients
- 1 large cauliflower crown
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup lime juice about 2 limes
- 3 cups cooked or canned black beans rinsed and drained
- 1 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
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Remove outer leaves from cauliflower. Break into 8-10 large chunks (sufficiently small to fit into food processor bowl). Working in batches if necessary, place cauliflower chunks into food processor bowl. Pulse a few times until finely chopped to about the the size of rice grains. Set aside.
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Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion. Saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute another 30 seconds.
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Add cauliflower, salt and pepper. Stir fry until cauliflower begins to crisp-up and brown in spots, about 5-7 minutes.
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Add lime juice and beans. Flip a few times to mix everything and get beans thoroughly heated. Remove from heat and add cilantro.
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Divide onto plates. Serve with hot sauce.
I somehow skipped the rice and rice phase, but I am always up for rice and beans! Especially CAULI rice and beans! Sounds so perfect for stuffing into a burrito shell.
Yes!! I picked up a bunch of tortillas so I could make this again and do just that!
Hi, Glad to see I was not the only "Convert" to latch onto the Rice n Beans phase...(still luv them but have so many other dishes as options). This Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice & Beans so brilliant, and will be making it this weekend, with tortillas (currently going through my burrito/tortillas phase and loving it!.). Thanks for posting so many interesting and tempting recipes.
So it's not just me! I do still love some rice and beans too, though I used to eat them like crazy. This would be awesome with tortillas and I'm actually going to try that myself. Glad you're enjoying the recipes - thanks and I hope you enjoy this one!
They used to think you had to combine foods in the same meal to make a complete protein, but now know that as long as you're eating a relatively balanced diet those amino acids take care of business all by themselves and complete the proteins you've eaten over the course of a day or couple of days. Regardless, this looks fab. I love anything cilantro and lime, and can totally get on board with this cauli rice and beans bowl. Yum!
I knew it was something like that! I realized it wasn't such a big deal anymore but couldn't remember exactly why (and yeah, I was kinda hoping someone who knew what they were talking about might chime in ;) ). Thanks Katie!
Can't wait to make this and eat with guac!
Guac would be awesome with this. :)
Super easy and healthy! Will make again.
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Beth!!
Wow that was delicious!! Thanks!! Will do this again for sure!!! 😊
Yay! Glad you enjoyed it!