Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry


Trader Joe's has cauliflower filling the shoes of rice, pizza crust, mashed potatoes, and burger patties, among other things. Here, it's reprising its classic ricey role, but this time, it's part of a complete stir fry meal—well, complete if you're fine eating stir fry sans meat, or even fake meat of any kind. Surprisingly, I was more than happy with it that way. Sonia was too.

Not only is it full of peas, corn, and peppers, but there's already a good bit of savory flavor thanks to the blend of tamari, onion, sesame oil, and ginger. I had to look up "tamari." In this case, it's soybeans, salt, and spirit vinegar. Then, I had to look up "spirit vinegar." Is it related to spirit gum? Is it really that close to Halloween? We haven't even started pumpkin pandemonium yet. Turns out it's a vinegar that's distilled from the ectoplasmic residue of ghosts and otherworldly beings. Oh, no wait. That's what I assumed it was before I looked it up...it's actually...well, here's the link I found. You can read it yourself if you're as culinarily ignorant as I am...ahem, was.


The blend of veggies is very well balanced against the base of riced cauliflower. In our case, each veggie was pristine, whole, and was extremely high quality in both taste and texture. The combo of seasonings is subtle, but goes a long way toward making this a stand-alone side dish. I wasn't even craving extra salt or pepper. There's something surprisingly addictive about this product. I mean, I thought the same thing about the riced cauli by itself, but this particular mixture is even more enjoyable in some ways.

We even tried adding it to some leftover food from the local Chinese place since we had run out of white rice. It worked surprisingly well with my Kung Pao Scallops. I'd be willing to bet it'd go just fine with less exotic selections like beef or chicken, too.


A normal bag of riced cauliflower will run you $1.99 at TJ's, and this offering costs exactly a dollar more. Couldn't you simply buy a bag of mixed veggies and stir it into a bag of riced cauliflower while altering the amount of veggies to suit your personal taste? Sure could. And it would probably cost about the same, or maybe even a little less. But as far as pre-mixed concoctions go, I can't imagine a much better blend—certainly not a blend with more universal appeal than this one. It seems pretty safe to me. If you like mixed vegetables and riced cauliflower, you're probably not gonna hate this.

Four stars a piece here.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.


8 comments:

  1. The japanese fried rice at TJs is one of my most favorite instant dishes i always have on hand- i was so excited to try this cauli version! The flavors aren't quite the same but the cauli version the calories for the entire bag (!!) are the same as for one serving of the fried rice.
    I loved this and doctored it up with some of those teriyaki nori snacks crumbled in, plus some of the savory tofu cubed for an easy fast really filling meal.
    I will definitely buy multiples on my next trip!
    Ttrockwood

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    1. You leave awesome comments, T.

      Thanks for your feedback. Will have to try this with teriyaki nori snacks next time!

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  2. I just made a bag of this with shrimp. I cooked it in toasted sesame oil. Im trying to keep myself from eating the whole pan.

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  3. I'm hooked on this stuff. I eat the whole bag along with a Chile Lime Chicken burger from TJ's and it's so yummy and filling. And a big bang for the calories with a lot of protein.

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  4. Maybe a silly question but it is vegetarian or vegan? Normally TJ’s packaging will say and this one does not.

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  5. I love to stir in an egg or two and scramble it in the skillet while everything else cooks. My go-to dinner.

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  6. Love this stuff I add shrimp and a splash of gf soy sauce

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