Cajun dirty cauliflower rice with beef (meal prep)
20 min · 39 g protein · 340 cals / serving
Louisiana's dirty rice made low carb and in one pan: lean ground beef browned hard with the onion, celery and pepper trinity, Cajun spice, thyme and garlic, then tossed with cauliflower rice and a splash of broth until every grain is speckled and savoury. Finished with green onion and hot sauce, it fills four boxes in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb ground beef (93% lean)
Trinity
- 1 small onion, diced, or see the frozen blend below
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 small bell pepper, green, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp cajun or creole seasoning, salt-free if you can find it
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp paprika, smoked
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 2 bags (12 oz each) cauliflower rice, frozen
- 1/2 tsp salt, to taste
To serve
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 tsp hot sauce, Louisiana-style, plus more at the table
Steps
- Heat your largest skillet over high heat, add the beef and press it flat; leave it 3 minutes to brown underneath, then break it into small crumbles and cook 3 minutes more, until no pink remains (160°F).
- Add the onion, celery and pepper (or a 12 oz/340 g bag of frozen seasoning blend, straight from the freezer) and cook 4 minutes, until softened and any frozen water has cooked off. Stir in the garlic, Cajun seasoning, thyme and paprika for 30 seconds.
- Add the Worcestershire, broth and the frozen cauliflower rice. Cook, stirring and scraping up the browned bits, 5–6 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender and the pan is nearly dry. Taste, then add the salt; Cajun blends vary a lot in how salty they are.
- Stir in the green onion, parsley and hot sauce and divide between four containers.
Good to know
Where's the liver?
Classic dirty rice gets its colour and depth from chicken livers. For the traditional version, chop 3 1/2 oz of chicken livers very finely and brown them with the beef; most meal-prep versions leave them out, as this one does.
How do I keep it from going mushy?
Cook the cauliflower until the pan is dry, not until it is soft: it softens a little more every time it is reheated. It keeps four days and also freezes well for a month.
Per
- Calories
- 89
- Protein
- (48%)
- 10 g
- Fat
- (37%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (15%)
- 4 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 230 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1359 kcal goes into the pot and 1910 g of ingredients comes out as about 1530 g of food: 89 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.