Dirty Rice Recipe (Cauliflower Rice)
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This dirty rice recipe is filled with delicious bacon and makes a great side dish for many low-carb southern meals.
Normally, you’ll find a lot of sausage in dirty rice. But it’s a pretty versatile dish, so using other meats is not uncommon. I couldn’t find any sausage I was comfortable eating, so I went with bacon instead, and I was not disappointed. And while I think I personally would have preferred actual rice, this was pretty tasty for being made with cauliflower rice!
What Is Dirty Rice?
Dirty rice is a traditional Louisiana Creole dish made from white rice which gets a “dirty” color from being cooked with small pieces of pork, beef or chicken, green bell pepper, celery, and onion, and spiced with cayenne and black pepper. Parsley and chopped green onions are common garnishes.
Source
Where did dirty rice originate?
Dirty rice was a byproduct of South Louisiana’s abundant rice crop, Cajun cooking techniques and home cooks with a lot of mouths to feed and not a lot of money. Rice is plentiful in South Louisiana and inexpensive. Dirty rice, like so many great dishes from around the world, was the product of necessity, of making the best out of the ingredients and cooking techniques you have.
McCormick.com
How To Make This Low Carb Rice
If you can sauté in a pan, you can easily make this dish. Cook your bacon separately (even ahead of time, if you want!) and the rest is just chopping everything really well and then sautéing it all together in your pan. I recommend adding ingredients to the pan in the order listed and as the instructions say. Don’t just dump it all in there. You want to get the peppers and onions soft before adding the rest. Other than that, this is a super simple dish to make.
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More Southern Recipes
Dirty Rice Recipe (Cauliflower Rice)
Dirty Cauliflower Rice
Equipment
- Large Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. oil
- ½ cup minced yellow onion
- ½ cup minced celery
- ½ cup minced green bell pepper
- 6 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tbsp. minced jalapeno pepper
- ½ tsp. smoked paprika
- 2 tsp. cajun seasoning
- 12 oz. packaged frozen riced cauliflower
- ¼ cup chicken stock (on reserve for cooking – if needed)
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. ground black pepper
- 8 slices turkey bacon (cooked and chopped small – I used applegate)
- ¼ cup fresh, chopped parsley (finely chopped)
Instructions
- Warm the oil in a large skillet.
- Combine the onion, celery and bell pepper in the pan and sauté until the onion is translucent.
- Add in the garlic and jalapeno, and continue to sauté for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the spices and cauliflower. Once the cauliflower is fully cooked, you are pretty much done. Just stir in the bacon and add the salt and pepper.
- Only use the chicken broth if your pan gets too dry before adding the cauliflower. Once you add the frozen cauliflower, the water from that will keep things going.