If you’re trying to cut down your carb intake, you most likely start with omitting pasta and rice from your evening meals. You might be familiar with substituting rice with cauliflower, like I did in this very simple coconut rice or curried rice. It’s prefect for Asian dishes. But have you tried risotto yet?
Carbohydrates
Risotto was one of those dishes, I had not tried yet. I love a good creamy risotto. And although we’re not strictly on a low carb diet, we try to eat less of those little buggers. Mind you, carbohydrates aren’t bad, it’s just that we eat way too much carbohydrates for our bodies to burn up (and all the excess is stored as fat). Unless you’re an athlete burning thousands of calories a day. Which I am obviously not. So, I have to watch how much I consume.
Risotto
Back to the risotto. I figured that if we can use cauliflower rice for Asian inspired dishes, surely, we could use it for Italian dishes. Just needed to rethink the recipe, as the method for a good risotto, i.e. slowly adding stock and let the rice suck it all up, would not be working with cauliflower. What adds creaminess then? Cream cheese. Now let’s cook up some risotto.
Ingredients
1 small cauliflower (ca. 750g cauli-rice)
250 g fresh spinach
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
100 g cream cheese
60 g freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
“Rice” the cauliflower in a food processor. Do so in small batches, otherwise you have to process too long and it may get all mushy. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a grater.
Then steam the cauli-rice for ca. 8 minutes. It should still be al dente.
While the “rice” is steaming, chop the spinach and finely dice the shallots and garlic. You could also use frozen spinach, but make sure it’s thawed and drained well.
Heat a little bit of olive oil in a large pan (I use a wok) and sauté the shallots and garlic until the shallots are translucent. Add the spinach and sauté until it has wilted down.
Add the steamed cauli-rice, the cream cheese and Parmesan and stir until the cheese has melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. If needed, cook a few more minutes on low heat until the cauli-rice has the desired tenderness.
Great as meatless main or serve as a side to fish or chicken.
Kids cleaned their plates in no time ;-).
Enjoy!
Low Carb Spinach Risotto
Ingredients
- 1 small cauliflower (ca. 750g/26oz cauli-rice)
- 250 g fresh spinach*
- 2 shallots
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 100 g cream cheese
- 60 g freshly grated Parmesan
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
-
“Rice” the cauliflower in a food processor. Do so in small batches, otherwise you have to process too long and it may get all mushy. If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a grater.
-
Then steam the cauli-rice for ca. 8 minutes. It should still be al dente.
-
While the “rice” is steaming, chop the spinach and finely dice the shallots and garlic.
-
Heat a little bit of olive oil in a large pan (I use a wok) and sauté the shallots and garlic until the shallots are translucent.
-
Add the spinach and sauté until it has wilted down.
-
Add the steamed cauli-rice, the cream cheese and Parmesan and stir until the cheese has melted.
-
Add salt and pepper to taste.
-
If needed, cook a few more minutes on low heat until the cauli-rice has the desired tenderness.
Recipe Notes
* If using frozen spinach, make sure it's thawed and well drained.
