- December 2, 2020
- 30 Minute Meals
Easy Bacon Cauliflower Fried Rice
This is a quick and easy meal using delicious crispy bacon, pre-made frozen cauliflower rice, and a handful of veggies for the perfect breakfast, side dish, or dinner recipe. It’s whole 30, gluten free, and low carb keto friendly too!
While cooking is 100% my passion (I know, this is shocking), even I get VERY burned out at times on prepping and making a huge meal from scratch. It’s times like these I turn to a recipe that uses just a handful of ingredients that uses few dishes, is healthy and keeps me on track, but tastes gourmet too.
Yes, cauliflower rice can taste gourmet (even more shocking, I KNOW). While I will give you some tips and techniques for learning how to fix soggy cauliflower rice from ruining your life below, be sure to check out my complete guide on How To Make The Best Cauliflower Rice. It will change your low carb clean eating life!
Moving on from that, this recipe is a handful of staple ingredients. Bacon is absolutely as staple ingredient… change my mind. But, let’s dive into the prep and cooking techniques for this delicious weeknight dish so you can get to the real purpose of this post; eating and watching some Netflix!
“School” Supplies:
- Sheet Pan
- Spatula
- Knife & Cutting Board
- Griddle Pan or Wok Pan
“Class” Notes:
Let’s break down the ingredients used, possible substitutions, and the tips you need for making the perfect griddle cauliflower fried rice recipe at home.
Ingredients:
Frozen Cauliflower Rice: Let’s be honest, it’s easier, faster, and 100% works in most cases (over fresh cauliflower). While it’s cheaper to purchase a whole head of cauliflower rice, I’d rather not dig out the food processor if I can help it. Splurge and spend an extra dollar and get the pre-riced cauliflower when possible.
I will share more tips below to help you on making cooked cauliflower rice, so keep reading. Also, feel free to use regular rice if that’s what you prefer.
Bacon: Use regular pork bacon or turkey bacon. You could use other forms of protein (or not meat at all) if you prefer. I like to pre-cook the bacon so it’s just slightly under cooked to my liking. This helps in rendering the fat enough but not over cooking
Sesame Oil: While you can use other oils in this fried rice dish, sesame oil adds that signature flavor to it that really helps tie everything together. Additionally, it has a high heat smoke point than olive oil and is better when using in a wok or on a grill griddle too.
Green Onion: I like to keep my added veggies to a minimum and keep the dish simple. Adding some thinly sliced green onion works great here when pairing it with bacon and eggs.
Minced Garlic: Garlic is amazing in everything, but especially with cauliflower rice. It NEEDS some flavor, so garlic it is! Pro Tip – Wait to add it the last 60 seconds of cooking when using medium high heat to prevent it from burning.
Chili Paste: Adds a much need spicy zing to the cauliflower rice. Use less if you are not a fan of spicy foods, but it really adds something extra.
Soy Sauce: I mix a little into the chili paste mixture to add a little salt and that signature soy flavor to the cauliflower to soak up.
Sesame Seeds: Honestly, it just makes everything look prettier but also it tastes good too.
Eggs: I opt to add soft boiled in at the end. That delicious yolk soaks up nicely in the seasoned cauliflower rice at the end for a nice touch.
Salt and Pepper: ALWAYS!
Cooking Tips and Techniques:
Cauliflower fried rice is honestly fairly straight forward, but here are some specific tips to the cooking process to make note of.
- Always prep your ingredients when making a fried rice or a stir fry. These types of recipes move quickly and require you to have all the ingredients pre-measured and ready to go.
- Swap out traditional scrambled eggs with adding a few soft boiled eggs in at the end instead. Scrambled eggs often get overcooked, the soft boiled eggs are a nice change to a classic fried rice dish.
- Pre cook your bacon to render the fat. I prefer to do this on a baking sheet in the oven. Remove the mostly cooked bacon to paper towels prior to dicing into pieces for the fried rice.
- Hate soggy cauliflower rice? Me too! Take your frozen bag of cauliflower rice and pour it onto a baking sheet. Defrost it and remove excess moisture prior to cooking on your griddle or in your wok by cooking it in the oven. A dry heat method removes that excess liquid and defrosts it at the same time.
- Preheat your griddle pan or wok to medium high heat before adding any of your ingredients! This prevents you steaming your food and encourages browning instead.
Grab the complete recipe below. Want to swap out the bacon? Try this hot and fast smoked pork belly instead or make a chicken fried rice with some leftover weeknight roast chicken for the perfect remake of your leftovers.
Easy Bacon Cauliflower Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 4 cups Frozen Cauliflower Rice
- 8 Slices Cooked Bacon
- 4 Eggs Soft Boiled
- 2 Green Onions sliced thin
- 2 Garlic Cloves minced
- 1 tbsp. Chili Paste
- 1 tbsp. Soy Sauce or coconut aminos
- 2 tsp. Sesame Oil
- Sesame Seeds Salt, Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Par cook/ defrost your frozen cauliflower rice by placing it all onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 F. in the oven. Additionally, cook your bacon until it’s almost crispy and remove and place to a paper towel and chop and set aside.
- Heat a wok or grill griddle to medium high heat.
- Add the sesame oil and then add the cauliflower rice and green onion. Let it cook for 2 minutes or so and stir it occasionally with a spatula. Add in your bacon and continue to cook another minute.
- Mix in the chili paste, soy sauce, and minced garlic. Toss everything together until the cauliflower is coated in the sauces and heated through. Remove the mixture and season with any additional salt and pepper to taste and mix in some toasted sesame seeds.
- Serve the bacon cauliflower rice with a soft boiled egg and any extra bacon or green onion to garnish.
Can you freeze leftovers?
Yes, you should be able to freeze this no problem. Just defrost and toss it back in a pan or throw it in the oven on a baking sheet to absorb any moisture that may have formed during the freezing process.
If I make fresh Cauliflower rice do I need to put it in the oven before? Can’t wait to try!
I think it still helps to do this, yes!