Raw cauliflower couscous makes an easy fast alternative to rice. Team it up with fresh herbs, a delicious citrus orange and fennel salad for lunch or dinner. Ready in 10 minutes and fabulously DELICIOUS!
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What is raw cauliflower couscous?
Cauliflower couscous is also known as cauliflower rice. It’s makes a great alternative to rice dishes, made with just raw cauliflower. This is my go to raw vegan alternative to cooked rice.
If you haven’t tried it before I recommend giving it a go. It was a game changer for me trying to find a good reliable rice alternative.
What else is in this recipe?
- Orange - fresh, sweet, tart and deliciously juicy citrus.
- Pea shoots and mixed baby greens - fresh, delicate, tender, crisp and earthy.
- Fennel - aromatic with a light, sweet and slightly anise flavour.
- Mixed whole olives - green and black olives marinated in a little oil provide a wonderful saltiness, softness and their slight bitterness we all love.
- Lemon - adds a tangy, sharp, citrus flavour to the cauliflower rice.
- Fresh parsley and mint - earthy fresh herb flavours to elevate your dish.
- Spring onions - crisp, and lightly pungent onion flavour.
How to make a herb cauliflower couscous.
Simply breakup the raw cauliflower into florets and pop them into your food mixer.
Pulse them slowly until you can see the cauliflower starts to resemble grains of couscous. Try not to over pulse the cauliflower or it will result in a mush.
Remove the couscous from the food mixer and add to a bowl. Scatter with finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice and spring onions.
Pour over the juice of half a lemon and stir it all together so it becomes light and airy and the herbs and onion are evenly distributed throughout.
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
If you enjoy cauliflower you may like to try my recipes Cauliflower Rice and Cauliflower "Fried" Rice.
How to slice an orange into rounds.
The best way I know of to slice the orange into rounds is to start by slicing off a little peel from the top and bottom first.
This way the orange will sit on your chopping board without rolling around.
It’s easier to slice if you use a small serrated paring knife.
Holding the orange firmly just slice the peel from the top of the orange around and down to the bottom. Try to keeping the oranges natural shape as much as possible working with the knife carefully and working around the pith.
Take as much of the pith as you can without cutting into the orange itself.
Once you've removed the orange peel and pith, slice the orange into rounds. Try not to slice the rounds too thinly as you might find the orange collapses and the slices won’t keep their beautiful shape.
How to prepare the salad.
The orange fennel and olive salad couldn’t be simpler to prepare.
To begin with there’s no dressing as the orange adds both citrus and sweetness and it’s own juice.
For this recipe the base of the salad is a selection of baby leafy greens. I chose pea shoots, baby red chard and spinach.
I feel baby greens work particularly well with this dish. Of course, please feel free to choose your own mix.
Cut out the hard centre from the fennel and discard. Slice the fennel into matchstick style pieces so they’re nice and thin. The finely sliced fennel adds just a hint of liquorice flavour.
Don’t be put off by the fennel if you’ve not tried it in a salad before. I avoided fennel for years then was blown away when I recently discovered it!
Peel and slice the orange into rounds. Olives add that wonderful saltiness and their own natural fat to the salad.
All that’s left is to serve up the entire dish.
Add the leafy greens to your plate. Then follow with your orange slices on top.
Scatter the fennel across the salad and pop a few pieces in amongst the salad leaves and the orange so that it’s well distributed.
Add the olives around the plate. Garnish with fennel fronds if you have them and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper if you’d like to.
To complete the whole dish spoon the herby raw cauliflower couscous over one side of the plate and tucked a little under the salad.
Your gorgeous raw cauliflower salad is ready to enjoy. Yum!
Recipe Card
Raw cauliflower couscous with orange fennel salad
Equipment
- Food processor with an s-blade.
- Chopping board.
- Paring knife, serrated if possible.
- Spoon.
- Bowl.
- Plate to serve.
Ingredients
- ½-1 pack of baby leaf salad with pea shoots (approx. 40g).
- 1 ½ cups cauliflower florets (about 2 handfuls).
- 1 medium orange.
- ½ small fennel.
- ½ cup mixed whole olives.
- juice of ½ lemon.
- A small handful in total of fresh mint and parsley leaves.
- 2 spring onions.
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Instructions
- Top and tail the spring onions then finely slice. Cut the middle from the fennel and discard. Slice remaining fennel into matchsticks sized pieces and reserve for later with fronds. Peel the orange then slice into rounds. Finely chop the fresh herbs.
- To make the couscous add the cauliflower florets to a food processor with an s-blade and pulse for a few seconds each time until the cauliflower resembles couscous or rice.
- Into a medium sized bowl add the couscous and top with the finely sliced fresh herbs and spring onions. Pour over the juice of half a small lemon then stir together so that it's light and airy in consistency all the way through. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- To serve, put some of the cauliflower couscous onto a plate. Add salad leaves slightly to one side, then top the leaves with orange slices. Sprinkle the whole plate with fennel and lacy fennel fronds. Scatter over a few olives. Season to taste.
Notes
Hey, did you like this recipe? If so it would mean the world to me if you would please Pin this to your Pinterest boards or even share it on social media so others can find it too.
I’m off for some tea.
LOVE RAW FOOD
XOXO
Juliette
mum, dog owner, lover of raw food
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