Who loves Cauliflower Rice? Who loves Rice Bowls? Let’s try this! It has a lemon-hummus dressing and so many deliciously healthy ingredients to love in the spring. This post is sponsored by Pompeian.
Cauliflower Rice? Buddha Bowl? I know. I know. Everything about today’s recipe title is potentially unfamiliar but excitingly new. Follow along while I tell you a bit about these kitchen trends that I really love.
Video: Salad Dressings With Hummus
Cauliflower Rice
Yesterday, I told you about cauliflower rice. What is it? Basically, it’s cauliflower in small crumbles that you cook and then use as a rice substitute. Why? Because it’s light and fluffy like rice but is better for you. As to the cauliflower crumbles, you can make them yourself using a box grater or food processor. Or, as is my preference, you can buy them in bags already crumbled in your produce department. They’re usually labeled either as cauliflower crumbles or as cauliflower rice. I’ve heard you can get them in the freezer section too but I haven’t spotted them at my store yet. I’ll keep you posted!
That explains that part. Today’s recipe has cauliflower rice in it, meaning that it has some tiny bits of softly cooked cauliflower that act quite a bit like rice.
Note that if you want a different flavor profile, you could make this delicious roasted cauliflower recipe with Italian flavors, and then chop up the leftovers into bits for cauliflower rice. That’s one of my favorite things to do if I have leftover roasted cauliflower.
What Is A Buddha Bowl?
Well, you know what a Rice Bowl is, right? You find these at Tex-Mex restaurants a lot. It’s a bowl with rice in it that is then topped with some kind of protein and some Tex-Mex ingredients like beans, pico de gallo, guacamole, cilantro, corn, etc.. You can look at our new Burrito Bowl series on sister site, TheCookful for more great ideas.
A Buddha Bowl is like a rice bowl but on a different plane of existence. A healthier plane of existence. Typically, Buddha bowls involve a grain other than white rice, so either brown rice or quinoa or farro. Then the toppings are lean proteins like legumes, egg whites, maybe some chicken breast. And lots of colorful leafy greens and other vegetables, maybe a bit of fresh or dried fruit. You finish it off with some crunch in the form of nuts and some dressing or other seasonings. I really love the breakdown of what goes into a Buddha bowl over here. The idea is that it’s a full meal with every healthy thing that you need, all in one bowl.
Buddha Bowls are particularly great for springtime, and summer months, because they hit so many of your nutritional needs without being heavy. They’re light and bright and fun, just like spring!
Now, that we’ve clarified what Cauliflower Rice is and what a Buddha Bowl is, let’s get onto the recipe.
How To Make A Cauliflower Rice Bowl
As you might have guessed, this one doesn’t use a grain but has the cauliflower rice as its base. You cook up that cauliflower rice and then put it into deep serving bowls.
As to the rest of the ingredients, they were all chosen because of the dressing. The dressing uses hummus as a base. Yes, really. What you do is to whisk together hummus, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until it’s smooth.
It has tons of delicious flavor and is thick and creamy.
It’s important to choose the right olive oil here because you use quite a bit of it, equal parts hummus and olive oil. It’s best to go with something pretty mild in flavor so that it doesn’t overpower the hummus. I used smooth extra virgin olive oil for mine.
Because I was using this lemony hummus dressing, I chose the other ingredients for this Buddha bowl based on how awesome they taste with hummus and lemon. So, in addition to the cauliflower we have cucumbers, radishes, avocado, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, and dill. You pile all that on top of the cauliflower rice and then drizzle it with the dressing.
It’s so good. I’m really in love with the dressing and know I’ll be making it often.
Print
Cauliflower Rice Buddha Bowl Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
DESCRIPTION
Who loves Cauliflower Rice? Who loves Buddha Bowls? Let’s try this!
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. plus ¼ cup mild olive oil, divided
- 16 oz. cauliflower rice (4–5 cups uncooked)
- ¼ cup hummus
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- ⅛ tsp. black pepper
- 1 (14 oz.) can low-sodium chickpeas, drained
- 2 avocados, chopped
- ½ English cucumber, sliced
- 8 radishes, sliced
- 4 Tbsp. toasted sunflower seeds
- ¼ cup fresh dill fronds
Instructions
- Warm a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and heat.
- Add the cauliflower. Stir, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the hummus, remaining ¼ cup olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until smooth. This may take a minute.
- Divide cauliflower rice among 4 deep bowls.
- Top with chickpeas, avocado, cucumber, and radishes.
- Divide hummus dressing among the bowls.
- Top with sunflower seeds and dill.
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Pompeian. All opinions are my own.
This post originally appeared in June 2017 and was revised and republished in September 2020.
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