This is one of those recipes that can make you rethink your diet and realize that it’s really not that hard to eat healthy. As most of you know by now, I’m not only an advocate of a gluten-free diet, but a grain-free diet as well. At first glance, a grain-free diet seems daunting and leaves you with a “what in the world am I going to eat” feeling. Let me tell you, there is no shortage of good great awe-inspiring food when eating this way. Whether it’s in the form of pasta made from zucchini or kelp, pizza crust made from cauliflower, or in this case rice made from cauliflower, the possibilities are endless. Some recent books (reviews coming soon) that cover recipes in this category are Make it Paleo by Bill Staley and Hayley Mason, Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking… by Julie Sullivan Mayfield, as well as Everyday Paleo by Sarah Fragoso — all of these are fantastic resources for those looking for grain-free recipes. The list of blogs on this topic is growing faster than I can possibly keep up with and I’ve been really pleased with the fact that Elana of Elana’s Pantry has been moving in this direction as well. She’s been promoting recipes using both almond and coconut flour for several years now, but it seems that she’s taken this theme a step further lately and has been creating some fabulous recipes — several of which I’ve tried and all have been fantastic.
This recipe for Paleo Dirty Rice is a Cajun inspired dish that was absolutely amazing when I made it. The mix of garlic, onions, celery, peppers, and quite a few other spices… made this as flavorful as it is nutritious. The wonderful thing (for me) is that there isn’t a noticeable cauliflower taste to any of it — you get the benefits of the cauliflower with the sensation of eating rice, it’s almost too good to be true.
For those avoiding starchy high carb foods such as white rice, cauliflower rice is a wonderful alternative that is highly nutritious.
When I posted my recipe for Cauliflower Rice a year ago, I received numerous requests for various flavored varieties of that dish. So when I opened one of my new favorite books, Paleo Comfort Foods and saw that they had a recipe for Dirty Rice, I knew I’d have to make my own version.
Do you like your rice dirty? According to Wikipedia, “Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun dish made from white rice cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, which give it a dark (“dirty”) color and a mild but distinctive flavor.” I turned my Dirty Rice into a vegetarian Paleo side dish, by leaving out the giblets, which while quite nutritious are not my favorite thing. My rice gets its dirty color from an abundance of antioxidant rich spices.
Even my children like Cajun dirty rice. In fact, we had this for dinner last Friday with the boys and 4 of their friends. I served my Dirty Rice with the Turkey Loaf recipe from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook, and when all was said and done, not a drop of either remained…
