Cauliflower Rice Risotto

This insanely creamy cauliflower risotto is all things delicious. It's made with sauteed riced cauliflower and a healthy cauliflower cream sauce (dairy-free or regular, your choice!) and has lots of fresh lemon flavor. Top with some spicy garlic prawns for an easy dinner that everyone will love!

Calling all risotto fans! We've made us a cauliflower rice risotto that will knock the socks off of any ‘real' risotto lover. #truth

This is all about a super creamy sauce and loads of fresh lemon flavor. It wraps itself around the cauliflower rice just like the creamy starch in a regular risotto. We've thrown some spinach in there too cause a splash of green = awesome.

You want this cauliflower rice risotto because:

• It's the creamiest risotto this side of Italy.
• You want to be healthy, but you want to eat delicious food, too. With this recipe, you can have it all.
• Cauliflower is still going strong as the most adaptable veggie of all times.
• Also adaptable – this recipe. We love it served with some garlic chili prawns but we've used the same spices on some fried tofu for a delish plant-based meal.
• Two sauces – one delicious recipe. Feeling like some cheddar cheese? The cheesy sauce is EVERYTHING. Feeling like a super clean recipe? The dairy-free cream sauce is also amazing!

How to make cauliflower rice risotto

1. Saute some onion then add cauliflower rice and some broth to the pan and simmer until the cauliflower is soft.
2. Now take some of that soft cauliflower and pop it into your blender to make the cream sauce.
3. The rest of the cauliflower stays in the pan. Add some spinach and pour in the cream sauce you just blended.
4. All that you need to do now is quickly saute some prawns and dinner is ready!

Quick tip: Bags of Mann's Riced Cauliflower is a great way to save time!

Full recipe in the recipe card below.

That tasty sauce pouring into the pan up there is what makes this cauliflower rice risotto.

You see, when you make a regular risotto it's the starch from the rice that makes it creamy. That's obviously not going to happen with cauliflower rice, so you need to up your game if you want creamy risotto (you ALWAY want creamy risotto.) Making a sauce to add to the pan to mimic the creaminess of a regular risotto.

You have two options here:

1.  A cheesy cauliflower sauce with white cheddar and parmesan. OMG and all the heart-eyed emojis.

2.  A dairy-free cauliflower sauce that gets its creaminess from cashews and its cheese-like flavor from the nutritional yeast.

Popular Cauliflower Rice Recipes

• Curried Chicken Cauliflower Rice Soup
• Spanish Chicken and Cauliflower Rice
• Paleo Cauliflower Fried Rice – vegetarian recipe!
• Sweet Korean Chicken Thighs with Cauliflower Rice

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Cauliflower Rice Risotto Recipe

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 25 minutes mins

Total: 35 minutes mins

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This insanely creamy Spinach Lemon Cauliflower Rice Risotto is all things delicious. It's made with sauteed cauliflower and a healthy cauliflower cream sauce (dairy-free or regular, your choice!) and has lots of fresh lemon flavor.

4 servings

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ▢ 1 medium onion (finely minced)
• ▢ 36 ounces cauliflower rice
• ▢ 1 cup vegetable broth
• ▢ 5 ounces baby spinach

Option #1: Cheesy Lemon Cream Sauce

• ▢ 1 cup whole milk
• ▢ 1 cup white cheddar cheese
• ▢ ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ Juice of 1 lemon

Option #2: Dairy-Free Lemon Cream Sauce

• ▢ 1 ½ cups vegetable broth
• ▢ 1 cup raw cashews or pine nuts
• ▢ 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• ▢ 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ▢ Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions 

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it is transparent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the cauliflower and broth and bring to a boil. Cook the cauliflower uncovered, stirring occasionally, until it is soft, about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
  1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 medium onion, 36 ounces cauliflower rice, 1 cup vegetable broth
• If you're using the Cheesy Lemon Cream Sauce:

  Remove 2 cups of cauliflower from the pan and add it to your blender with the milk. Blend on high until smooth. Add the cheddar, parmesan, sea salt, and lemon juice and blend again until the cheese has melted.
  1 cup whole milk, 1 cup white cheddar cheese, ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon sea salt, Juice of 1 lemon
• If you're using the Dairy-Free Lemon Cream Sauce:

  Remove 2 cups of cauliflower from the pan and add it to your blender with the vegetable broth, cashews, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and lemon juice and blend on high until smooth.
  1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 ½ cups vegetable broth, 1 cup raw cashews or pine nuts, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, Juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Add the spinach to the cauliflower rice and put the pan back on the heat. Let the spinach wilt and then pour in the sauce you made and let it heat through.
  5 ounces baby spinach

Video

Notes

We like to use three bags of Mann's Cauliflower Rice to make this recipe. 

If you'd like to make your own cauliflower rice, you'll need 9 cups of riced cauliflower. You'll need about 2 medium heads of cauliflower. 

The shrimp you see in the photos are these chili lime shrimp. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1 serving = ¼ of the cheesy risotto, Calories: 303kcal (15%), Carbohydrates: 24g (8%), Protein: 17g (34%), Fat: 18g (28%), Saturated Fat: 8g (50%), Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 41mg (14%), Sodium: 1240mg (54%), Potassium: 1163mg (33%), Fiber: 7g (29%), Sugar: 10g (11%), Vitamin A: 3890IU (78%), Vitamin C: 149mg (181%), Calcium: 435mg (44%), Iron: 2mg (11%)

© Author Kristen Stevens

We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.