Make Your Own Cauliflower Rice — Chicken Soup with Dumplings (2024)

FAQs

Will cauliflower rice soak up liquid? ›

For one, it doesn't absorb liquid like rice does, so riced cauliflower alongside stews and curries will be more watery.

Create a Slurry.

Combine flour and milk in a sealable container like a Mason Jar, and shake it up. You'll get a smooth flour mixture called a slurry, which will help to thicken your sauce. This turns this recipe into more a a creamy chicken dumpling soup, loaded with flavor.

It really is as simple as putting the cooked and cooled cauliflower on a clean flour sack towel , wrapping it up and squeezing all the water out. I like to use flour sack towels because they're large and really thin, which makes them easy to squeeze tight and get out as much water as possible.

Leave riced cauliflower on the heat too long and it will become soft and soggy. Follow this tip: Quickly cooked in a little butter or olive oil on the stovetop, riced cauliflower becomes softer and more tender. As a rule of thumb, about three minutes over medium heat and not too oil much should do the trick.

Cauliflower has several properties that may help with weight loss. First, it is low in calories with only 27 calories per cup (107 g), so you can eat a lot of it without significantly increasing your calorie intake ( 1 ). It can also serve as a low calorie substitute for high calorie foods, such as rice and flour.

However, rice can be high in calories and carbohydrates, meaning it will fill you up without providing you with many additional nutrients. Substituting cauliflower rice for white rice is a great way to get more antioxidants while reducing calories and carbohydrates in order to save room for other nutrient dense foods.

If you add the dumplings too early and they cook much longer than 15 minutes (depending on the size of the dumpling), they will begin to break down.

Use Cornstarch to Thicken Chicken and Dumplings

To give that a little thicker texture we're going to add 1 cup of cool water to 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and stir it up well. Make sure the soup is brought back to a good boil and go ahead and stir in the cornstarch mixture.

Overcooking It

"When it is riced it's really easy for it to turn mushy from overcooking and then it won't hold up as well in your dishes where you're trying to use it to substitute rice," says Maggie Michalczyk, MS, RD.

How do you thicken riced cauliflower? ›

The key to a thicker consistency is to drain the steamed cauliflower really well before pureeing or blending it up. Put the puree back into the warm pan and add grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and you should have a nice, thick texture. You can also add a keto thickener like glucomannan or xanthan gum.

Turns out, there's something else you should be doing with cauliflower rice, straight from our very own test kitchen sensation Brad Leone. "Put it in your soup," he says. "It acts as a thickener, adding lots of body and creaminess without any fat." Leone uses the technique in his monkfish and cauliflower chowder.

As far as we can tell, it's the same thing, just a different name. The term “cauliflower rice” didn't become an internet sensation until around 2012. But ever since then, this nutrient-rich rice substitute has been booming in popularity!

Cauliflower, like all cruciferous vegetables (cabbages, mustard, broccoli, etc.) contains sulfur compounds which will begin to smell when the vegetable is overcooked. Blanching, roasting or steaming just until the cauliflower is fork tender will keep it from smelling up your kitchen.

Cauliflower has always been considered a healthy vegetable with a significant amount of nutrients. It also contains plant compounds that help reduce the risk of some diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Recently, it has been used as a substitute for white rice as a way to cut back on carbs.

Place the bowl with the salt inside the pan of rice. Leave it in there and the salt should absorb all the extra moisture.

Remove the lid of the pot and let the rice cook uncovered. This will allow some of the excess water to evaporate, leaving you with less mushy rice. Drain the excess water from the pot by using a colander or a large spoon. If the rice is still too wet, you can add a tablespoon of butter or oil to the pot.

Rice is capable of absorbing an astonishing amount of water.

If you're cooking frozen cauliflower rice on the stovetop, cook it in small batches. Cooking too much at once can produce excess moisture and lead to soggy cauliflower rice.