With two little ones under 3, I’m constantly trying to find ways to make meals as easy and straightforward as possible, and still nutritionally sound. This recipe is a great example of how you can modify a recipe to accomplish all of these goals. The original recipes I based this off of called for actual rice. However, that left me with a dish that had a bit of fruit, a bit of veggies, a lot of grain, and made me feel like I needed to add a side of vegetables to make it a balanced meal. After putting together this dish, however, I knew I wouldn’t want to have to worry about making something additional and brainstormed how I could mess with the recipe to achieve a more veggie-heavy dish, all served up in one bowl.

Enter cauliflower rice. This has become a new “trend” in the health food world, and while I definitely find many such trends to not be at all worth their hype, this is one that I’ve come to really enjoy. I’m not a big fan of cauliflower on it’s own, but as “rice”, I’ve found it surprisingly enjoyable. The texture is great (if you don’t overcook) and the taste is so mild that I doubt you’d even know it was cauliflower. By substituting in cauliflower rice in place of the rice called for in this recipe, I was able to give us a huge bowl of veggies, accented with juicy caramelized pineapple and a bit of spicy, bold chorizo. The leftovers were awesome too, and we all went back for seconds.

Caramelized Pineapple Chorizo “Rice” Bowls

Serves 3-4

1 head cauliflower

drizzle of olive oil

½ sweet onion, diced

1 tsp minced garlic

½ lbs chorizo

1 Tbsp butter

1 cup pineapple, chopped into ½ inch chunks

1 red bell pepper, diced

3 green onions, thinly sliced

salt

pepper

paprika

 

Avocado Chipotle Cream

1 avocado

½ cup plain yogurt

1 chipotle from chipotle canned with adobo

juice from 1 lime

“Rice” your cauliflower. Quarter the cauliflower head; remove the stem, and process in a food processor or grate on a large hole cheese grater. Press gently with a paper towel to remove excess moisture and set aside.

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil, onion, and garlic. Sauté until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add chorizo. Cook until browned. Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Add butter to pan (no need to clean it!) and then add the pineapple. Cook from about five minutes, until browned and caramelized. Add peppers and cook a couple more minutes. Pour chorizo mx back into the skillet with the pineapple and peppers and add the cauliflower rice. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika. Stir to blend ingredients, adding green onions, and cooking until cauliflower rice is just beginning to soften.

Add avocado, yogurt, chipotle, and lime juice to your blender or food processor. Blend until smooth, adding a bit of water if desired to thin. (this will likely result in a good amount of leftovers, as we found it to be quite spicy and just used a bit to accent; you can certainly half the recipe instead)

Portion rice mixture into serving bowls and drizzle with chipotle avocado cream.