Rice is a great accompaniment to stews and curries. In fact, it feels a bit weird eating them without rice. You feel like you've somehow been cheated and your stomach doesn't feel quite as satisfied without the rice!
Now you might ask why, if rice is so high in calories, are Asians so lean and fit? Well, firstly, that might have been true a few decades ago but, since the introduction of western foods into Asian culture, diabetes type 2 has become a serious problem. Before that, Asian people ate a lot of rice BUT it's what they eat WITH that rice that makes all the difference.
If you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, their signature dish is something called pho which is a big bowl of homemade beef marrow bone broth, tripe, tendons, brisket, and rice noodles. A REAL Thai restaurant will serve you bone broth soup with pork blood, greens, rice noodles, and a duck egg. A Chinese restaurant will serve sauteed pork kidneys with Chinese broccoli and rice on the side. At a Japanese restaurant, you'll get wild caught salmon eggs rolled with seaweed and rice, tuna sashimi, and some fermented miso soup with kelp strips. Koreans eat a dozen different kinds of kimchi (fermented vegetables), grilled short ribs, beef tongue, and liver all wrapped in lettuce, with rice on the side. In all these foods, rice is present, but so is real, wholesome bone broth, fresh meat, fermented foods, organ meats, and vegetables.
If you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, their signature dish is something called pho which is a big bowl of homemade beef marrow bone broth, tripe, tendons, brisket, and rice noodles. A REAL Thai restaurant will serve you bone broth soup with pork blood, greens, rice noodles, and a duck egg. A Chinese restaurant will serve sauteed pork kidneys with Chinese broccoli and rice on the side. At a Japanese restaurant, you'll get wild caught salmon eggs rolled with seaweed and rice, tuna sashimi, and some fermented miso soup with kelp strips. Koreans eat a dozen different kinds of kimchi (fermented vegetables), grilled short ribs, beef tongue, and liver all wrapped in lettuce, with rice on the side. In all these foods, rice is present, but so is real, wholesome bone broth, fresh meat, fermented foods, organ meats, and vegetables.
They don't have any wheat in their diets and their diets are so full of nutritious food that promotes a healthy colon and encourages proper digestion of their food. Also, something that I will go into in more detail in another post, is that, even if rice is high on the Gycemic index, eating it in conjunction with foods low on the Glycemic index will lower its impact on the body considerably.
As an aside, Asian people also walk more and ride bikes to get around whereas we are a nation of drivers. We exercise for, at most, an hour a day (some of us!) and that's it. The rest of the day is usually spent sitting at a desk, in a car or on a couch.
So, basically, eating a diet of white rice, for westerners, is not going to help the calories fall off. In fact, I wouldn't recommend white rice to anyone because it's processed and contains very little nutrients. If you're going to eat rice, stick with brown rice and make sure you soak and prepare it properly to make all the nutrients available to your body. But, if you want to cut down on rice and find a tasty alternative that is low in calories and high in nutrients, you can try cauliflower rice.
1 cup of cauliflower has just 29 calories and only 5 grams of carbs. It's about 15 on the Glycemic index so it's WAY lower than rice.
Cauliflower also has some rather handy health benefits:
So, basically, eating a diet of white rice, for westerners, is not going to help the calories fall off. In fact, I wouldn't recommend white rice to anyone because it's processed and contains very little nutrients. If you're going to eat rice, stick with brown rice and make sure you soak and prepare it properly to make all the nutrients available to your body. But, if you want to cut down on rice and find a tasty alternative that is low in calories and high in nutrients, you can try cauliflower rice.
1 cup of cauliflower has just 29 calories and only 5 grams of carbs. It's about 15 on the Glycemic index so it's WAY lower than rice.
Cauliflower also has some rather handy health benefits:
- Nutritional: It contains vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine) and B9 (folic acid). It also contains omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin K. It serves as a good source of proteins, phosphorus and potassium. It's a very good source of vitamin C and manganese, which are both powerful antioxidants.
- Antioxidation: Aside from the above antioxidants, cauliflower also contains beta-carotene and phytonutrients that include kaempferol, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid and caffeic acid. All of these protect you from free radical damage and reduce your risk of diseases like heart disease and cancer.
- Detoxification: Cauliflower contains glucosinolates and thiocyanates (including sulforaphane and isothiocyanate), which help the liver to neutralise toxic substances that could cause to cancer. The presence of enzymes like glutathione transferase, glucuronosyl transferase and quinone reductase also help in the detoxifying process.
- Cancer Prevention: There are loads of studies linking cauliflower-containing diets to cancer prevention, especially these types of cancer: bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer. Even better, research has shown that it has compounds to resist cancer. It actually has the ability to eliminate cancer enzymes
- Anti-Inflammatory: Eating cauliflower regularly can help decrease the risk of inflammatory diseases like arthritis, obesity, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis. A cup of boiled cauliflower contains about 11 micrograms of vitamin K and 0.21 g omega-3 fatty acids. The omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin K in cauliflower helps prevent chronic inflammation that leads to chronic disease.
- Digestive Support: A cup of boiled cauliflower contains about 3.35 g of dietary fiber, which helps clean out your digestive system. There's also a substance in cauliflower called glucoraphin which seems to protect your stomach lining. It reduces the risk of stomach ulcers and cancer.
- Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular: Because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, cauliflower protects against cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases like stroke, heart failure or dementia.
All good reasons to start eating cauliflower! The thing is, it's a difficult vegetable for some people to eat. Unless it's smothered in cheese sauce, not many people actually LIKE it. Kids definitely won't eat it. Enter cauliflower rice! The key to getting kids to eat certain vegetables is to *whispers* disguise them as something else;)
Just a note: I wouldn't eat cauliflower raw. It tends to mess with your digestion, especially if you have a sensitive colon and react to certain foods. Lightly cooked is the way to go!
Cauliflower Rice
1 head of organic cauliflower
1 small onion
Butter
1 clove of garlic
6 Tbs bone broth
Mixed herbs
Salt
Pepper
Cumin (optional)
Method
Wash cauliflower and roughly chop up
Place in food processor and process until it almost resembles small pieces of rice
Place 2 Tbs butter in a frying pan on medium heat
Finely chop onion and garlic and place in pan
Cook for about 3 mins or until soft
Add cauliflower to pan and give it a few good stirs
Add bone broth, herbs, salt, pepper and cumin
Mix and cook on low heat for about 5 minutes
Serve with... well... anything really!
I add some cumin purely because I love the spicy flavour. It's entirely up to you. You can really add whatever you want to it. If you are having it with curry and want it to look more authentic, add a 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric to it to make it yellow. If you're making it for kids, they may not like the onion. However, it DOES make it taste really good so I'd recommend adding the onion to the food processor with the cauliflower to dice it REALLY small and the chances are good they won't even realise it's there;) Failing that, just leave it out!
It looks like winter is going to make an early appearance this year and, when it's cold, we crave stews and curries. What better way to fight off the usual winter bulge by cutting back on calories?
Enjoy!
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