Wegmans Recipe: Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry

Cauliflower Rice Stir Fry

This isn't an official recipe but we came up with this to showcase our new product at the store: cauliflower rice. It is simply finely chopped cauliflower that, when cooked, looks, feels, and tastes like rice. I had many customers remark that they were very surprised that it wasn't really rice! When you add the sauce, the rice turns a light brown color, making it look exactly like brown rice. The stir fry sauce I used is Wegmans' own house brand, and it has 3g of sugar per Tbsp. if you can find one with less sugar, feel free to use that. You can also make your own sauce if you're feeling adventurous.

Ingredients:

1/2 head of cauliflower

1/2 c. snow peas

1/4 c. shredded carrots

1/4 c. baby corn, chopped into 3rds or 4ths (optional)

1/2 c. bell pepper, any color, diced

1/2 c. broccoli florets, small

1/4 c. sliced shiitake mushrooms

1/3 c. stir fry sauce, low sugar (I used Wegmans Organic Stir Fry Sauce)

2 oz. Wegmans Organic Garlic and Parsley Finishing Butter, or other herbed butter

Wash and rough chop the cauliflower. Processes in food processor until the pieces are roughly the size of rice grains. In a wok or frying pan, melt the butter. Add in rice and cook until rice has absorbed the butter mostly. Add a pinch of salt and pepper blend if you wish. Push the rice to the outsides of the pan. Place the veggies in the center, and pour the sauce over the veggies. Stir the veggies up in the sauce until coated, then mix the rice and veggies together and stir until veggies are slightly soft (or until desired doneness). If you wish to cook the veggies a little more, turn down the heat a bit to keep things from burning. You can also cover the pan and let it steam a bit if you want. 

Beef Enchiladas, Homemade Queso Sauce, and Mexican Cauli Rice

Beef Enchiladas and Queso Sauce with Mexican Rice

I wanted to make a gordita/enchilada hybrid. Back in public school, they used to serve us cheap gorditas: crappy ground beef, a super thick, fluffy tortilla (that's actually quite similar to a real gordita) tortilla, and some cheap nacho cheese. Alex really loves gorditas so I tried to do a fusion sort of dish. Unfortunately, because of the how similar the end product ended up being to an enchilada, he didn't like it. Oh well. If you like enchiladas you'll love these.

The rice is an interesting story. Wegmans just debuted cauliflower rice in the veggie market, and I wanted to come up with a recipe to showcase the new product. We had been doing Asian dishes for a while, so I wanted to do something different. We have a new red chile sauce too, and I wondered if I could use the chile sauce to make the rice look and taste like Mexican rice that you get in Tex Mex restaurants. The Wegmans brand chile sauce only seems to come in 24 oz. containers for now, and that seemed to be way too much for my needs for tonight, so I got Frontera's Red Chile sauce. The package says mild, and it may have been the Rotel (which I've never used before this) but the rice was quite spicy. Not reach-for-the-milk spicy, but definitely clear-your-nasal-passages spicy. I used the whole 8 oz. in my rice. Because of this, I'm recommending you use 1/3 c. of the sauce and then dong the 1 and 2/3 c. chicken broth option. Nevertheless, the rice turned out much better than I expected, especially with the homemade queso sauce on it.

Filling:
1 lb. ground beef
taco seasoning (I like Jack Scalfani's recipe here, it's in the description. Quadruple it, but only use 1/4 tsp. salt)
1/2 c. water

Brown the beef in a skillet with the taco seasoning. When the meat is nearly brown, add the water and let thicken a bit. Transfer meat to a bowl and set aside.

Queso:
1 c. unsweetened unflavored coconut milk
1 can Rotel original
1 tsp. minced garlic
3 slices pepper jack cheese
7 slices Cooper cheese
1 c. shredded white cheddar

In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk and rotel until bubbling. Add in cheese bit by bit until smooth and creamy. Stir often during this process and don't let it burn. You can add extra Cooper cheese if you'd like a thicker queso.

Mexican Cauli Rice:
1/2 head cauliflower
1 c to 1/3 c. red chile enchilada sauce (1 cup makes very spicy rice, 1/3 will make medium rice)
1 c. chicken broth (1 and 2/3 c. if only using 1/3 c. of chile sauce)
1 can rotel original
1 red bell pepper, diced
4 Tbsp. butter, divided in half
1/2 pack of Splenda (about 1/4 tsp)

Wash and cut cauliflower into chunks small enough for your food processor. Process until pieces are rice-sized. Transfer to a microwaveable container and add 1/3 c. red chile sauce, 1 2/3 c. chicken broth, and the rotel. Microwave on high for 20 minutes. In a pan big enough for all the rice, fry the bell pepper in 2 Tbsp. of butter. When the rice is done in the microwave, add it to the peppers and add the extra 2 Tbsp. of butter and bit of Splenda. Pan fry the rice until 95% of the liquid has evaporated.

Other:
6 oz. white shredded cheddar
6 large low carb tortillas or 8 smaller ones

Topping:
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. heavy cream
8 oz. of red chile enchilada sauce
2 oz. shredded white cheddar

Mix the chicken broth and heavy cream in a pourable container. On a clean, flat surface, lay out a tortilla. Place 1/6th or 1/8th of the meat (depending on how many tortillas you have) on one end of the tortilla. Add 1/4 c. queso and a sprinkle of white cheddar. Tuck the ends in and roll up. Place seam side down in a baking dish. Repeat for all other tortillas. Pour over the topping mixture of cream and broth. Cover enchiladas in enchilada sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Spray the underside of some foil and cover the dish. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Serve with the rice and the extra queso sauce.

Veggie Cream Cheese Stuffed Mini Peppers

Philly Cheesesteak

So this isn't really steak, I suppose you could use chopped steak if you had it on hand. I used ground beef for this and it's amazing. I made it and then my mom made it a few nights later she liked it so much.

Philly Cheesesteak 

1 lb. ground beef 

1 white onion, chopped into strips

1 green bell pepper, diced

Cheese sauce:

2 slices provolone cheese

4-5 slices Cooper cheese

1/3 c. unsweetened unflavored coconut milk (I like SO Delicious brand- green container)

garlic powder

bit of salt

fresh ground black pepper

In a cast iron skillet, caramelize the onions almost fully. You'll need a bit of butter or oil. Add in the peppers when it's almost done. Let cook for another few minutes. Remove from pan. 

Brown and break up ground beef. While the beef is cooking, place all cheese sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat while stirring until all ingredients are melted. It may take a while, but it will happen. Adjust the amount of cheese and coconut milk if you like. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spread beef evenly over the bottom of the skillet. Top evenly with cooked onion and peppers. Pour over the cheese sauce. Bake until bubbly. 

Cheesy Zucchini Bake

This is so simple and easy, but tastes and looks (with a little effort) amazing.

Cheesy Zucchini Bake

I made this a while back and kinda threw stuff into a pan so I'm gonna try to remember what I put into it. Measurements aren't going to be exact.

Slice up a large zucchini (or yellow squash) or two, and either layer it in the pan as shown, or just toss it in there. I won't judge you. Grease the baking dish before you put the zucchini in.

In a small sauce pot combine a few slices of Cooper cheese, a splash of heavy cream, some parmesan cheese (1/4 cup?), some butter (about a Tbsp), and some italian spices (Basil, oregano, parsley, black pepper, salt, & onion powder). Also add in some minced garlic or garlic powder. Cook, stirring over medium heat until all ingredients are combined. Carefully pour it over the zucchini slices. Top with some more parm and bake at 350 F until top is golden brown and sauce has thickened. 

Roasted Tomato Arugula Personal Pizza and Bacon Dijon Spinach Melt

There are so many things you can do with low carb tortillas. You can make a quesadilla, a pizza, a "crepe", a wrap, pinwheels, and tortilla chips. They're super versatile, and you can use one as a base for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert. I've made so many different types of pizza using a tortilla, this is just one example. Personal pizzas are a good way to use up leftover veggies or meats left in the fridge. A few days ago I made Alex a sauteed mushroom and baby spinach pizza. He loved it. This one is a roasted tomato and arugula pizza, made using leftovers from the salad. (No I didn't keep the salad this long, the picture is from nearly a month ago.)

Roasted Tomato Arugula Personal Pizza

 Ingredients:

1 low carb tortilla (Tumaro's)
1/4 c. low sugar pasta sauce
1 handful mozzarella cheese
1 handful chopped baby arugula
a few roasted tomatoes, packed in oil, cut up
sprinkle of feta cheese (I used a French sheep's milk feta, you don't have to be that fancy)
Italian spices (oregano, basil, parsley)

Spread the cheese over the tortilla. Sprinkle on mozzarella. Add next 3 ingredients. Sprinkle on the spices. Bake in the toaster oven or oven (probably 350 F will do it) until edges crisp and cheese is melted.

You can do this little pizza with whatever you have on hand, veggies, meat, etc.

Bacon Dijon Spinach Melt

Ingredients:

2 slices bacon

several slices of Cooper or White American Cheese

1 handful of baby spinach. 

1 tsp. to 1 Tbsp. of dijon mustard, depending on preference

1 tortilla

Fry bacon until crispy. Remove from pan and allow to cool a bit. Lay tortilla in bacon grease. Cover with Cooper cheese. Tear up the baby spinach as you put that on top. Coat the spinach with the mustard using a fork to carefully mix it. Add fresh ground black pepper if you wish. Chop up bacon and sprinkle on top. Fold tortilla in half carefully and flip over. When the tortilla is golden brown and crispy, remove from pan and serve. Makes a meal for one or a snack for two.

Valerie's Roasted Tomato Arugula Salad

My boss gave me 10 clamshells of baby arugula to demo/sell the other day. I was like, "Nobody likes arugula, what the hell am I gonna do with this stuff?" Then, my brilliant coworker Valerie suggested a roasted tomato-feta salad she made for company a while back. So I went over to the cheese department and they gave me Noah's Valley Israeli Feta cheese. It's a very fresh feta that's very creamy, and unfortunately we are discontinuing it. :( So, any fresh, high quality feta will do. This recipe has no dressing, which shocked my customers. Instead, the herbed oil that the tomatoes are packed in mixes with the creamy feta to create a faux dressing that my customers drooled over, and for good reason too. So this 3 ingredient salad sold all of our organic arugula, TWO kinds of feta (the one I mentioned and a French feta), and I sold so many roasted tomatoes they had to pull out the frozen stuff in the back! So, hit recipe, EVEN IF YOU HATE ARUGULA, which many of my customers do.

~5 oz. clamshell/bag of baby arugula
4-6 oz. French Sheep's Milk Feta or the Noah's Valley (or any other good quality feta you can find)
3.5 oz. Wegmans Italian Classics Roasted Tomatoes (packed in olive oil, garlic, and herbs), chopped up

Combine all ingredients in a bowl just before serving. Make sure to use that yummy oil from the tomatoes,  it's basically the dressing. Garnish with a bit of freshly ground black pepper. If you need to transport this, put the tomatoes on the bottom, then the cheese, then the arugula on top so it doesn't get soggy.

If you don't have a Wegmans near you, one: I'm very sorry, two: you can use some canned tomatoes. Try to get the fire-roasted ones that have some sort of basil, garlic, or other italian spices in them. You'll want to add your own extra virgin olive oil to the salad.