To anyone is trying to avoid carbohydrates or extra calories, white rice can be a big loss. You never knew how much you appreciated it until it’s not casually available in your diet, especially if you like Asian food, as I do. Fortunately, there’s a pretty easy substitute that works surprisingly well.

You will need:

• 1 Head of cauliflower
• Grater 
• Largish bowl
• Steamer, microwave or otherwise

The rest is quite simple. Wash your cauliflower. If it has any discolorations, you can just scrape them off with a knife without anyone being the wiser. Trim off the leaves underneath and some of the stem, and cut or break it in half to make it an easier size to work with.

Working over the bowl, grate the cauliflower with a medium size grater. You don’t want super fine or large pieces. We’re trying to simulate rice, so if it’s roughly rice sized, you’re doing it right. Don’t worry about little bits breaking off. You can always push them through the greater or break them up with your hands. Get all the flowery parts of the cauliflower; you don’t need to grate the hard stem, but a little won’t mess anything up.

Place the grated cauliflower in the steamer, add a bit of water (however much your particular method of steaming usually calls for), and steam until tender. I use a microwave steamer, and for me, 6 minutes was the perfect time. Your “rice” should be neither crunchy nor mushy.

And that’s all there is too it. You can serve it with stir fry or Asian dishes as you would white rice, and you can even use it to make a pretty good mock fried rice.