While we often discuss cauliflower rice as it pertains to a recipe, this post focuses on nutritional facts like cauliflower rice calories and other benefits it has to offer.
One cup of cauliflower rice contains a fraction of the calories and carbohydrates as regular rice making it an extremely popular ingredient in the low-carb community.
It’s also a grain-free and gluten-free option for those who need to eliminate grains and gluten from their diet, and the best part is that it takes on all the flavor you add to it! Is there anything it can’t do?
What is Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower rice results from processing fresh cauliflower florets through a blender or running it over a cheese grater to form small, rice-like pieces. It closely resembles the texture of regular rice and does an excellent job of absorbing seasonings and flavors when cooked.
You can easily find pre-packaged bags of riced cauliflower in the produce section of your grocery store or freezer aisle. However, if you want to get more bang for your buck, you can make cauliflower rice at home!
Riced Cauliflower Calories
Each cup of raw cauliflower rice yields only 35 calories compared to 210 calories in a cup of traditional rice. The good news is that it performs like the traditional counterpart in recipes, which means that you can still enjoy your favorite foods like Spanish rice, fried rice or use it to replace regular rice in stir-fry or burrito bowls. If you want to change up the texture you can even roast cauliflower rice for a delicious side or base.
Cauliflower Rice Nutrition Facts
Other than its low-carb superpowers, each cup of raw cauliflower rice provides the following macronutrients and micronutrients:
- Calories: 35
- Fat: 0
- Carbs: 5
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 2
- Vitamin C: 57% RDA
Who knew this cruciferous vegetable had so much vitamin C?!
Health Benefits of Cauliflower Rice
Cauliflower is a healthy option to include in anyone’s diet. Cup for cup, cauliflower rice has only 3 grams of net carbs, while regular rice has 44 grams. Net carbs are calculated by subtracting the amount of fiber from the total carbs.
Despite its low calorie and carb count, the calories in cauliflower rice are not empty calories. Anytime you use it in place of regular rice, you replace it with a nutrient-dense ingredient that will leave you both satisfied and provide nutrition.
Its texture is similar to regular rice also makes it an ideal ingredient to replace traditional rice to create delicious low-carb recipes. It’s also an easy way to get more veggies in your day and nutrition when practicing intermittent fasting.
If you’re interested in learning more about intermittent fasting but don’t know how to start, check out my intermittent fasting guide for women. It includes an in-depth guide on how to incorporate it into a busy lifestyle and a one-week meal plan with great-tasting meals to break your fast.
Is Cauliflower Rice Healthy?
Cauliflower is a healthy and nutritious replacement for regular rice that’s easy to cook and incorporate into everyday meals. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to minimize their carb intake or get a few extra veggies into their diet. And bonus? Cauliflower tastes amazing!
Joanne Schultz
I was at the store & they had reduced price cauliflower rice in their produce section- 10 oz for 99¢ after $3 coupon for each package!! They had 5 of them, so I bought them all, came home & looked up how long to cook in microwave & cooked 1 pkg worth. While that was cooking I foodsavered the other 4 and put them in freezer. I had made butternut squash soup with more butternut squash than recipe stated. So I added some more water to it. Used almond milk instead of coconut milk to make it healthier and it ended up very watery. Put 1 cup of the cooked cauliflower rice in a soup bowl, added 1 ½ cups of the butternut squash soup, heated it up in the microwave and now it’s the perfect texture! I think next time I’ll throw some uncooked cauliflower rice in the instant pot with the butternut squash soup ingredients, so that when it is puréed, the cauliflower rice will be not so noticeable!
Laura Fuentes
Great tips!