This Keto Coconut Rice (South Indian Style) is a stir fry recipe made with cauliflower rice, spices, and shredded coconut. It is crunchy, it is fresh and tasty…And a much healthier (in terms of being low carb) compared to the traditional South Indian version made with white rice.
This Vegan Keto Coconut Rice recipe is the third “Cauliflower Keto recipe” in the series following Keto Sesame rice and Keto Lemon Rice.
They all follow the same logic – use the traditional South Indian rice recipe format like Coconut rice, sesame rice, lemon rice and substitute the white rice with cauliflower rice. There is, of course, 1 additional ‘Upgrade my food special‘ step, that I can proudly say adds a lot of flavor and removes the gassy taste of the cauliflower – roasting the cauliflower rice in the beginning.
Step by Step Pictures
Grate the cauliflower manually or with a food processor.
Get the coconut ready ( I microwaved the frozen coconut)
Roast cauliflower rice on a nonstick pan to get it caramelized and toasty…
Get tadka seasonings ready (missing in pic below – mustard seeds, oil)
Fry tadka items in oil
Add the roasted cauliflower rice
Add the freshly grated coconut.
Vegan Keto Cauliflower Coconut Rice is ready
(P.S.: The reason for the yellow tinge in the photos above is the kitchen light. I photographed the recipe early in the morning while cooking and had to use the yellow kitchen light (Waaa..:(!!). The final cover photos were taken when the sun was up and are much clearer. My apologies!!)
Recipe
This Vegan Keto Coconut Rice (South Indian Style) is a stir fry recipe made with cauliflower rice, spices, and shredded coconut.
- 3 cups Cauliflower Rice
- 1 cup Shredded Coconut (Frozen or fresh)
- 2 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tbsp Chana Dal
- 1 tsp Urad Dal
- 3-4 Green Chilis (adjust according to your spice levels)
- 1 Red Chili (broken into 2)
- 1 stalk Curry Leaves
- 2-3 tbsp Cashew Nuts
- Salt (as needed)
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Process cauliflower florets in a food processor or manually using a grater to get cauliflower rice.
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Spread 3 cups of cauliflower rice on a non-stick flat pan on medium-high heat. Roast it well for 4-5 minutes until the edges crisp up. (This step will eliminate the raw cauliflower smell. Do not add salt, we don't want it to release water or get soggy.)
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Either manually grate a fresh coconut or heat a cup of frozen shredded coconut in the microwave for a minute until it gets soft and fluffy.
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Place a kadai/wok on medium-high heat, add the coconut oil and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds begin to sputter add the split urad dal, channa dhal, and fry for a while till the dal changes its color to red.
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Add cashew, green chili, red chili, curry leaves and continue frying.
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Add cauliflower rice, salt, and roast thoroughly on high heat mixing well.
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Finally, toss in the fresh coconut and give it a stir. Switch off the heat. Serve!!
For people strictly following the keto diet, please replace the chana and urad daals with other nuts and seeds that are allowed in the diet.
Conclusion
While I do not follow the keto diet personally, I am very happy to adapt some of their cool ideas – like cauliflower rice for the South Indian vegetarian diet; because we are already so carb-heavy.
This also makes a great lunch box idea. Consider this, a bowl of standard coconut rice with potato chips is quite high in glycemic index. You also have to eat a lot of rice to feel full because of the low levels of protein in this dish. But, that would add up to quite a bit of calories.
With Cauliflower rice, you have cut the carb portion significantly and added more fiber to this dish. Now, you can eat this voluminous dish with the wonderful flavor of coconut rice without any guilt. You can even pair it with potato chips (which while still bad), is not as bad as if you ate it with white rice.
I hope you give this Keto coconut rice recipe a try. Do post your comments below. I look forward to reading them.
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Check out the video of this recipe here
Post your comments here....I look forward to reading them!!