Creamy Cauliflower Rice or Cheats Risotto!

This recipe is so delicious!! I love it and I will be making it for many years to come - when cauliflower is in season mostly! But truly, it can be vegetarian or if you are like me,and your family freaks out when I say the 'V' word, just do what I did and add some bacon. Alternatively, you could also chicken as well.

I discovered this recipe on Pinterest from A Pinch of Yum.  Naturally, I have changed it just a little to suit my tastes and those of my family, regardless, thankyou Pinch of Yum for opening my eyes to a new way of using cauliflower....I so love Pinterest!! Who would of thought that pureed cauliflower could make brown rice look just like risotto?  I do have to note, that I didn't really follow the recipe closely. I read the post got a gist of what she did and I was on fire with ideas.

Recipe
1 medium head of cauliflower chopped into about 4-8 pieces
4-6 cups of chicken stock (i didn't measure this sorry, just enough to cover your cauliflower so it can be boiled)
8 rashers of short-cut bacon - if you do the whole rasher you could get away with 4
1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley
500g of cooked brown rice
2 tsp of garlic powder - or 2 cloves of garlic minced
Cheese of choice grated - approx 1 cup
salt and pepper to season

Method
1. Add cauliflower to stock and and boil cauliflower until tender
2. Blend cooked cauliflower until it becomes a thick puree - you may need to add some stock to bring it up to smooth, but not runny, and set it aside to cool.
3. Don't throw out your stock - keep it for another meal its yummo!
4. Dice up your bacon and cook it in a frying pan until nice and browned. You might want to add your garlic at this stage if you have fresh garlic.
4. Add cauliflower puree to bacon and stir through, then add garlic powder and stir through.
5. Add cooked brown rice (it could also be white its up to you) and fold through until well combined
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste - personally I only add pepper
7. Add parsley and grated cheese of choice folding through gently and serve.

Serves 6-8

It is so good, very straight forward to make and can be a fairly healthy meal and its quite versatile. You could use quinoa quite easily in this recipe. There is lots of room to add things that you or your family like. Do the experiment and don't tell them its cauliflower - they may not notice what they are eating:) I have to add that I didn't have left overs so couldn't test if it tastes good the next day.