Last updated on September 21st, 2019
A paleo Whole30 cauliflower fried rice recipe that’ll change the way you feel about meal prep. It’s the perfect side dish for any protein and tastes delicious alongside eggs for breakfast. It’s also gluten free, paleo, low carb and Whole30.
Can I make this with cauliflower rice with a whole head of cauliflower?
Do you want to learn how to make this delicious and easy paleo Whole30 cauliflower fried rice… at home? Without the mess?
What if I told you it was SUPER easy and delicious, with a little help of our friendly neighborhood grocer: Trader Joe’s?
I am a huge, huge fan of cauliflower rice but not a fan of the mess I am capable of making during preparation. Usually, I just suck it up and embrace the mess since I love cauliflower so much.
Not really though, most of the time I end up cussing under my breath while trying to catch the flying bits of cauliflower in the air.
In all seriousness though, I love working with cauliflower because it is such a versatile ingredient. I’ve roasted it whole in the oven, turned it into a puree/mash and most importantly, transformed it into some incredible fried “rice”.
Can I make this cauliflower fried rice vegan?
This recipe for paleo cauliflower fried rice should become a staple in your whole30 meal prep. It’s absolutely wonderful served alongside breakfast and tastes great reheated with leftovers.
What’s unique about this dish is that it can also be made vegan.
Simply omit the fish sauce and eggs, and you have got yourself a Whole30 AND vegan cauliflower fried rice dish. I’m so proud, what can I say?
One of the best parts about meal prep is figuring out dishes that you can make ahead of time and store for later use in the week. This is one of them. You can throw it in Tupperware or a gallon freezer bag and toss it in the freezer for up to 1 month. Wahoo!
Can I use either fresh and frozen riced cauliflower for this dish?
You can absolutely use either one in the recipe. Simply continue sautéing the rice until it’s cooked through.
When I originally wrote this recipe post, riced cauliflower wasn’t nearly as popular or widely available as it is today.
It seems like any and all grocery stores and markets now have a version of either fresh or frozen cauliflower rice, which is a huge win for us.
I’m all about convenience. However, if you like to get down with your food processor, simply process cauliflower florets until they resemble a rice texture.
Then, you are good to go! 🙂
How to make Whole30 cauliflower fried rice:
Heat a large sauté pan on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. Heat up ghee add diced onions and carrot. Cook until onion looks translucent. Add garlic cloves and cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add in riced cauliflower. Carefully break down the cauliflower with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook the rice until it looks soft and tender. This can take anywhere between 5-7 minutes.
Add in the spices until well combined. Stir in coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar and fish sauce. Cook on medium-high heat until the cauliflower rice reaches your desired doneness (this took me another 7-10 minutes!)
Carefully stir in the scramble eggs. Stir for about 1 minute until everything has been well combined. Remove from the heat. Serve with your favorite meat, fish or with eggs for breakfast.
In the meantime, you need to check out this paleo cauliflower fried rice! I pulled out all the stops to reformulate and rephotograph this classic recipe for you!
Oh, and if you’re looking for another fabulous recipe for paleo cauliflower fried rice, check out Real Food with Jessica. She is notorious for having absolutely fabulous Whole30 content!
Be sure to add this fabulous recipe for paleo Whole30 cauliflower fried rice to your Whole30 meal plan(s).It’s going to become a staple in your kitchen like it has in ours. You can thank me later… okie? 🙂
Paleo Whole30 Cauliflower Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil, split in two
- 1 large red onion diced
- 4 medium carrots shredded
- 10 cloves garlic minced
- 3 heads of cauliflower, riced or 3 bags of Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower
- 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/4 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce omit for vegan
- 8 eggs cooked & scrambled, *omit for vegan*
- fresh parsley chopped- for topping
- green onions sliced- for topping
Instructions
- Heat a large sauté pan on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. Heat up ghee add diced onions and carrot. Cook until onion looks translucent. Add garlic cloves and cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Add in riced cauliflower. Carefully break down the cauliflower with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook the rice until it looks soft and tender. This can take anywhere between 5-7 minutes.
- Add in the spices until well combined. Stir in coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar and fish sauce. Cook on medium-high heat until the cauliflower rice reaches your desired doneness (this took me another 7-10 minutes!)
- Carefully stir in the scramble eggs. Stir for about 1 minute until everything has been well combined. Remove from the heat. Serve with your favorite meat, fish or with eggs for breakfast.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi! I’m Monica – recipe developer, matcha addict and lover of all things chocolate, kombucha and any & all puns. I am also the blogger, real food lover, & bonafide hustler behind the blog ‘The Movement Menu.’ I’m so excited to welcome you to my happy space, where my appreciation of creative recipes and healthy & mindful eats come together to inspire you to live a healthy, balanced life.
where can I find fish sauce without sugar? i went to whole foods and they did not have it.
Oh, really? Trader Joe’s carries Red Boat Fish Sauce (as well as online). Asian markets will also have fish sauce without sugar in them!
Fish sauce is not Whole30 compliant…???
I’m sorry, what do you mean? Red Boat fish sauce is 100% Whole30 compliant!
I made this last night & served with w30 orange chicken. It was sooo delish & all 5 of our kids had clean plates (2 even asked for seconds!!) They had no idea it was cauliflower and were completely surprised when I told them what the “rice” really was (after dinner was over of course)! 🙂 This will definitely be a staple in our house & I’m sharing the recipe with everyone!
This makes me SOOOOOO happy to hear. It has definitely become a staple at our house, too. I love that they are asking for seconds… hopefully thirds 😉
This is awesome. I made it the first time without the vinegar (because I was out) and decided I actually like it better that way after batch 6 or 7. It’s in heavy rotation. With only two of us, I usually make a roughly half batch. Going full batch tomorrow though to take for tailgating. It’s awesome cold!
And, yes, I actually prefer this to traditional friend rice. By a large margin. Thank you!
Hi Susan, it is the greatest thing in the world for me to hear that you prefer this to traditional fried rice. I can’t wait to share this commentary with my readers… how amazing. Enjoy!
Definitely delicious! I wish I had realized before jumping in how large of a batch it made because I’m not sure we will finish it all but we certainly will try. I was missing the saltiness of soy sauce soaked fried rice so I used a generous sprinkle of the nomnompaleo mushroom seasoning and it really made this recipe shine. We added shrimp too and that was also a fantastic addition.
Wow, love the idea of adding in those mushrooms… that sounds absolutely fantastic!!!!! I will need to add protein like shrimp to this fried rice the next time I make it for a more complete meal. Thanks for sharing 🙂
This is delicious! Have you ever frozen it if making a bigger batch?
Thank you! I haven’t personally, but a few people have asked about that and done exactly so with no problems! 🙂
I can’t wait to try this recipe; however, I am one person and was going to use 1 bag of cauliflower rice and not sure if I should reduce all ingredients by a third and round up. Also I was thinking of using coconut aminos instead of fish sauce. What do you think?
The recipe calls for both 🙂 The fish sauce gives it an extra dose of umami but if you don’t have any on hand, you can skip it. I’d reduce the ingredients by about half or so. I’m sure it’ll turn out just lovely 🙂 Alternatively, you can make the whole portion and freeze some for later!
I love how you can adjust the servings! Makes it easy for those of us who are cooking for one. I’ll definitely give this recipe a try. I think it will go great with the 5 Ingredient Whole30 Hawaiian Chicken Burgers from Physical Kitchness!
Oh, it definitely would!!! She has wonderful Whole30 content, too 🙂
Wow, this was delicious. Thank you!!!
That makes me so happy to hear. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!!
Why is it marked as vegan when it has eggs in it???
In the ingredients list, I have noted to remove the eggs and fish sauce to make the recipe completely vegan.
Looks great. I’m looking forward to incorporating into the whole 30 menu for my husband and I.
Yes, please do! And let me know what you think!!!
Does this travel well?? Tips for bringing to potluck?
It sure does!!! I’d absolutely bring it to a potluck!
This may be a stupid question- but do you scramble the eggs and cook in a separate pan and then add the cooked eggs to the “rice” mixture? Or do you mix the raw eggs up and add the raw eggs to the “rice” mixture and cook until scrambled consistency?
You can do either, to be honest. I did the latter 🙂
Just wanted to comment on what I did last night when I made this. I had it all in a bigger pot and pushed over the stuff that was already in the pan. I had made a packaged stir fry before and it suggested scrambling them in the pan after pushing the rest aside. I started with that, but realized I didn’t have much room for 8 eggs in that small space. I ended up cracking them all in that spot anyways, cooked them a fair bit, but since the rest of the “rice” was already hot, I just went ahead and mixed it all up and stirred it around to make sure it was all cooked. Plus, it probably gains a bit of flavor cooking it in the same pot…and you don’t have to dirty more dishes.
Ahhhhhmazing!!!! Chinese food is a HUGE staple in our house – hubs is a French chef so I think sometimes he wants an opposite flavor profile. I’m doing whole30 and he’s doing it outside work. We made another recipe earlier this week that didn’t call for cooking it as long and it was awful. The cauliflower almost took on a horseradish taste not being cooked long enough. Tonight I made this topped with Whole30 Mongolian beef and omigod… first night I’ve felt excited about dinner that I cooked in FOREVER!!
Hi Lizzie, wow this comment turned into a mile-wide smile over here. Thank you so much for taking the time to type that up. I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe and YES- if cauliflower isn’t cooked long enough, it will take on a funky taste! Can you do me a favor and rate the recipe (using the 1-5 star rating system towards the bottom of the recipe post)? That helps me out a ton! ????
Looks scrumptious!
Oh my goodness! This is so delicious!!!!!!! Thank you!
You’re so welcome. Did you already try it? 🙂
This looks so colorful and healthy, a great way to serve up some veggies to my family:)
EXACTLY. Gotta get those veggies in 🙂
fyi soy sauce would not be whole 30 compliant
Hi there. Yeah, of course not. Where do you see soy sauce in the recipe?
I think she’s referring to the post above that asked about substituting soy for the coconut aminos.
You can substitute soy… coconut aminos are a bit sweeter, but it should be delicious!
Go easy on the coconut aminos though. I put way too much on my cauliflower rice the first time I tried this substitution and they came out sweet. I put about 1/3 of what I would use with soy. On a side note, the aminos are amazing splashed into butternut squash.
Have you ever tried this with the riced cauliflower that isn’t frozen? my TJs sells a fresh version and I’m wondering if I’d need to tweak the recipe at all. Thanks!
No, it should be the same regardless 🙂
While I know you can “rice” cauliflower, I’m just too lazy. Mashed cauliflower is a big favorite of mine, but it can be a lot work. I tried making the TJ’s cauliflower rice but didn’t know how (just went off the instructions on the bag and guessed as I went along). I’m looking forward to trying out your version very soon!! Thanks for this! 🙂
You’re so welcome. Please let me know how it turns out… I agree, I make a huge mess whenever I rice cauliflower 🙂 haha
Where do you find dried shallots? Also, can I use soy sauce instead of coconut aminos or would that mess with the texture/taste?
Hey Juli! Dried shallots I got from Penzey’s spices, but you don’t need them. You can throw in some onion powder instead 🙂 You can use soy sauce instead of coconut aminos… coconut aminos are less acidic and more sweet but it won’t mess with the texture at all and very little with the taste. I say go for it and let me know the result!
I have found them in the regular grocery stores (Kroger, HEB in Houston, etc) as well. Penzey’s is so dangerous for me. I want ALL the spices. lol
I’m going to try this tonight but only have cauliflower florets, so I thought I’d mention that you can rice cauliflower easily in the blender. Just put in the cauliflower and a little water, run the blender on whatever moderate speed you have available, then drain the water when it’s done!
Oh, 100% absolutely.. thank you for bringing this up . I need to add that tidbit to my post. Please let me know how your “rice” turns out 🙂