Should you take the convenient route and buy riced cauliflower or is homemade best? Taste test time!
So you read all the articles about cauliflower rice. You know the health benefits, got all your recipes ready for action and you’re on your way to the grocery store. Awesome!
The big question is…do you buy frozen cauliflower rice, fresh cauliflower rice, or make it from scratch using a food processor or box grater?
Decisions, decisions!
Here, let me help you decide. I purchased a bag of frozen cauliflower rice from my local grocer’s freezer aisle and another bag of fresh cauliflower rice from the produce department. I also riced two large heads of cauliflower – one using a box grater and another using a food processor. That’s right, I did my own homework and this is what I found.
In the photo above, the frozen cauliflower rice is the first one to the left and the fresh, store-bought, riced cauliflower is the second one to the left. The third one was grated with a box grater and the last one was grated with a food processor.
The frozen cauliflower rice has smaller, more finely grated pieces making it easy to go from freezer to cooked in no time. The taste is just the same as if you were to make it at home and it pretty much lasts for months in the freezer. You can purchase bags of it and have it on hand whenever you want to make a quick side dish.
The fresh store-bought cauliflower rice has larger, rice-like pieces. Taste is not very different from the homemade version but if you’re not a fan of larger rice-like pieces of cauliflower, however, you may want to go with the frozen variety. The fresh cauliflower rice also doesn’t last as long as the frozen cauliflower rice so you will have to use it within the week before it spoils. This may come in handy if you’re on your way home and forgot to thaw or make your own cauliflower rice.
Both homemade versions resulted in a finer, rice-like texture. Obviously using the box grater requires more muscle and time while grating cauliflower florets in a food processor takes seconds. You may get a waterier cauliflower rice from the food processor. But that’s nothing a quick dish towel squeeze can’t fix.
You still get the same great, fresh flavor in both homemade versions. It just all depends how much time you have on hand and what kitchen equipment you have available at the time.
I hope this helps you the next time you’re in the mood for some cauliflower rice!
Thank you for this article! I’m trying to replace rice with cauliflower in some of my favorite casserole recipes, and I’m wondering if fresh grated/food processed vs. frozen riced cauliflower will be too watery. Should I just give a head of cauliflower a rough chop and see how it goes? What do you think? Thanks!
Using the food processor sometimes makes it a little watery, but you can always give the cauliflower a squeeze in a clean dish towel if you need to remove excess water. Good luck, Alex!
My recipe calls for two cups of cauliflower before it’s riced. I bought already riced cauliflower. how can I translate two cups of cauliflower into the amount of riced cauliflower I’ll need for the recipe?
It really all depends on how big the florets are, Emily. In general, you get 3-4 cups of florets from a head of cauliflower and you get about 4 cups of cauliflower rice from a head of cauliflower. So you can probably go ahead and do 2 cups of already riced cauliflower here. It might be a little bit more or less than what the original recipe had in mind but I think it should still work out fine.
I love my cuisine art food processor. It gives me what I need. Vegetable noodles, broccoli and cauliflower rice. Etc, I have recipes I can share if anyone is interested
In terms of being healthy. Home made wins any day. We can control what we put in. Frozen or canned food needs some form of preservatives added to it. If a store grated the cauliflower in front of you and gives it than it could be okay too.
Is there a difference as to which one’s healthier? I’m worried about the preservatives that may go into store-bought riced cauliflower.
I have a bag of store-bought riced cauliflower in my fridge right now and the only ingredient on the ingredient list is cauliflower. So at least some fresh pre-riced cauliflower does not contain preservatives. I think you’d have to look at the labels of any brand you’re thinking of buying though to make sure, Shirsha.
What sort of tool does the store use to get the bigger cauliflower squares? I use my cuisinart and it comes out like shredded cheese sized pieces and I really like the larger squares that the store sells. How do they do it??
Liz, I have no idea. But you know what, if they’re doing it right at your store, you could go to the produce manager and ask to see it. My produce department has always been very helpful to me. I bet they’d be happy to.
If a recipe calls for 1 head of riced cauliflower, what would be the equivalent in frozen bags?
One medium head of cauliflower yields about 4 cups and 1 pound (16 ounces by weight) of riced cauliflower, see here for how to make your own https://thecookful.com/how-to-make-riced-cauliflower/.
What about price differences?
Anton, great point! I’m guessing the homemade is cheaper, maybe a great deal cheaper. I’ll check out the price of a head versus a bag of crumbles next time I’m in the grocery store.