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Saturday, February 22, 2020

ChezCindy: Coconut Rice with Chickpeas and Broccoli

I have become a rice convert and am fully committed to buying huge bags of cauliflower rice from Costco.  They sell it frozen in 5 1-pound bags.  Knowing that no one else in this house eats cauliflower, that is a lot of cauli-rice for one person.

I mentioned this dish in a post last month new recipes post that I picked up from Kelly LeVeque's web site.  Her recipe offers this with chicken, very good.  I have changed the recipe adding more coconut milk for a creamier rice, a few other tweaks, and substituted chickpeas.

If you are not a fan of cauliflower rice, you can make this with regular rice.  The regular rice, white or brown, will need to be fully cooked before starting this recipe.  So it is a great head start when you have leftover rice from another time, even from Chinese take out.

Creamy Coconut Cauliflower Rice
2 cups broccoli florets
2 tablespoons coconut oil
4 tablespoons coconut milk
4 cups frozen uncooked cauliflower rice*
2 tablespoons butter
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Working with a large saucepan, blanch the broccoli florets.  Do this by filling the pan with 3 inches of water.  Bring the water to a boil, add the broccoli to the pan cooking it for about 4 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to lift and remove the broccoli from the water.  Place the broccoli on a towel to drain.  You may need to do this is 2 batches.  Set aside.

Drain the water from the large saucepan used to cook the broccoli.  Place the pan back onto the stovetop over medium heat.  Add in the coconut oil, swirling to melt and coat the bottom of the pan.  Add in the cauliflower rice, coconut milk and a pinch of salt, stirring all to combine.  Cook the rice for roughly 5 minutes to heat and cook through.  Add in the butter, chickpeas and soy sauce, stirring together.  Add in the still warm broccoli, stirring to combine.  Taste to adjust seasoning to your palette, adding salt and pepper.  Serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

*This dish can be made with regular white or brown rice, fully cooked for use in this recipe.


Cauliflower has just 25 calories per cup vs rice with 200 calories.  The carb count is 5g per cup vs 46g for rice.  It is very healthy, but mostly, it is delicious.