Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry

It's hard to believe, for strangers and myself at times, that I've been married for almost three years and that this blog as been around for longer than that. And in the past few years of marriage, I am blessed and thankful to say that A and I have hardly ever argued, which is kind of what we both expected given our temperaments. But the one time we did have a semi-serious but mostly facetious argument was about rice. Yes, rice is a very touchy subject in our household. There is only one thing, in A's mind at least, that constitutes rice - white rice. And if there is one thing, out of all the not-white-rices that I like to eat, that is definitely NOT rice - it's riced cauliflower. Please note the distinction between riced cauliflower (an acceptable term in our house) and cauliflower rice (oh no you do not say that in this house...NOOOOOOOO). 

This cauliflower stir-fry is basically the prepared version of what I tried sneaking past A a few years ago when I first tried the frozen riced cauliflower that I stock in my freezer from time to time. It is a new-ish product, only hit the shelves maybe last year or so. I bought this more as a veggie side than a carb/grain side, because in our house as long as we both agree that riced cauliflower is strictly a vegetable everything stays all good. :P

It's a loose resemblance to short grain white rice IMO. Even though this product has been marketed as "stir-fry," it really is more of a "fried rice" alternative. But riced cauliflower fried rice sounds redundant, and cauliflower fried rice doesn't sound edgy enough. 

Product of France! Healthy! Probably means mild taste. 

 As with plain riced cauliflower, the prep is quite easy and brainless, meaning I can do it after a long nightshift without thinking about it and without risk of scorching anything. There's nothing particularly amazing to rave about here. It's a very simple dish, healthy tasting, and mildly boring. Which I think is okay, because this strikes me as something that I would eat on any given day to get in a little bit more veg in my diet and not so much something so incredibly tasty I look forward to eating. It has a very mild taste. There's plenty of ginger with an onion backdrop to remind you that this is supposed to have some "Asian flavor," but it's not too overpowering. The tamari is there but not overdone - in fact I feel like this is one of those dishes that a typical Chinese takeout consumer would douse in extra soy sauce. The stir-fried veg portion isn't particularly impressive. It's basically a frozen vegetable mix, and we all know that frozen vegetable medley ends up kinda soft and meh no matter how much you saute it. 

I wouldn't personally consider this bland because there is that ginger/onion and tamari seasoning. But I can see how some people might think it tastes bland. So douse it in whatever sauce you please to your taste. I drizzled on some of that new gochujang (It is not a hot sauce, and the TJ's version is not the same as a Korean gochujang. I spent 5 minutes yesterday in the gochujang aisle at the Korean grocery store and not one type of gochujang had tomato in it!!!) that I'm trying to use up and topped it with a poached egg for protein. Great for a healthy post-work breakfast. 

This is easy enough to customize and DIY with your preferred blend of fresh or frozen veg at home with a few pantry staples. But if you're lazy and can't be bothered to DIY anything, it's not a bad buy at $2.99. 

TL;DR: Trader Joe's Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry. Frozen veg with cauli-rice. Mildly Asian, kinda boring, but healthy and convenient. 7 out of 10. Mantou Joe Repurchase? Occasionally cuz I get lazy too.