Anyway, one of the foods I've discovered during this venture is cauliflower rice. I HATE CAULIFLOWER. HATE IT. But it turns out when you rice it and cook it into something, it takes on the flavors of whatever you're adding. So far, I've tried and had success with stir fry, tacos, and jambalaya. And here's the blasphemous reason for this post: I actually liked the jambalaya better with the cauliflower rice instead of real rice!
Jambalaya is more a technique than a recipe, so when I made it, I just threw ingredients in the pan. For the sake of this post, I'm going to try to explain what it is and walk you through the process.
The ingredients you definitely need to be able to call your dish jambalaya without having to hide your face in shame are the holy trinity (onion, celery, and green bell pepper), sausage (andouille traditionally, but regular smoked is fine if you don't want it too spicy), a decent creole seasoning, and rice. From there, it's a matter of how easy or elaborate you want to go. This post will be the 2B-friendly version.
Sausage has a lot of sodium and fat. But you really want the flavor, so don't skip it. Do cut a small amount in small pieces so it spreads throughout the dish. Lightly brown sausage in a frying pan, then remove meat from skillet. Leaving fat from sausage (drain some if there is a lot and add a little olive oil if necessary), add cut up chicken breast to pan and saute until just barely cooked and remove that from pan. I happened to have leftover grilled chicken and grilled smoked sausage in the refridge, so I got to skip this step.
Add holy trinity to pan (plus a touch of olive oil if necessary). I actually used red bell pepper and jalapeno instead of green bell pepper because that's what I had. I also threw in some garlic, because yum. Saute for a few minutes, until onions start to soften, then add cauliflower rice. Once everything is mixed together, add some creole seasoning. Tony Cacheres and Zatarains are two brands, but at the bottom of the post, I will share my own AMAZING recipe that I always have mixed up and ready to use.
Cook for a couple minutes, then add your meat back it. Keep cooking and stirring until the meat is warmed through and the cauliflower is a nice texture. Add water (and a little more seasoning to compensate) if it seems dry. Since my meat was already cooked, this whole thing probably took like 15 minutes to make, including the time I spent chopping veggies.
I use fresh cauliflower rice (I buy it bagged in the produce section at Walmart). If you are using frozen, I'm sure adjustments should be made, but I don't know them as I haven't used frozen myself.
Really, any protein is amazing in this. Use what you like, just make sure to keep the ratio 25% protein and 75% veggie. Or up the protein, but have a salad on the side.
Here's a general sauteing hint: When you are attempting to soften veggies but don't want to get color on them or don't want to add extra fat to the pan, add a couple tablespoons of water to them. They'll continue to cook, won't brown, and the water will evaporate.
Creole Seasoning
3T paprika
2T onion powder
2T garlic powder
2T dried oregano
2T dried basil
1T dried thyme
1T black pepper
1T white pepper
1T cayenne pepper
1T kosher salt
1/4t chile powder
1/4t ground cumin
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