Tropical Rainbow Vegetable “Rice” with Pineapple Coconut Tahini is a colorful side dish or light main dish for the vegetable lover.
You guys, this is CRAZY!
Think: fried rice, but made entirely of vegetables. Also think: explosion of color and tropical flavors with a creamy sauce to bring it all together.
Out of a need for more creativity in the kitchen, a craving for something tropical, and the new-found desire to revolutionize the food world with all the vegetable rices, a very strange, yet strangely wonderful dish was born.
Spoiler alert: it’s this tropical rainbow rice.
Basically, this the same idea as cauliflower rice, except it incorporates red cabbage, golden beets, and carrots.
The result is a grain-free, healthful vegetable “rice” that can be adapted to your liking.
Just like cauliflower rice, you can prepare the recipe by either pulsing the vegetables in a food processor or grating them using a box grater.
I used my 8-cup food processor, and grated up the veggies in 3 separate batches.
Fair warning: this is not a for-everyone type of recipe.
Like, if you’re not keen on red cabbage, golden beets, pineapple, and/or tahini, this is probably not a good fit for you; HOWEVER, there is ample room for adaptation…just have a ponder:
Recipe Adaptations:
- Replace any of the veggies with red beets, parsnips, turnip, or sweet potato.
- Use ground cumin, Jamaican jerk spice, and/or Cajun seasoning to replace some of the curry powder (just be sure you use a salt-free spice blend so that you have more control over the level of salt).
- Replace green onion with red onion or leek.
- Substitute orange juice for the pineapple juice.
- Replace pineapple with mango or berries (or omit the fruit altogether).
- Almond butter or peanut butter instead of tahini.
- Add a little miso paste for kicks.
- Sriracha for spice!
I’ve gotta tell ya, I used this rainbow rice in scrambled eggs and it was glorious.
TAHINI? PINEAPPLE? IN YOUR SCRAMBLED EGGS, JULIA? <- you’re asking me this, I can just tell.
Yay, my friends. Yay.
Something about it just jumped and jived with my morning scramble.
Betcha could even add this rice to a frittata, similar to that Sweet Potato, Parsnip, and Broccoli Frittata I showed you a while back.
Taste the rainbow.
Tropical Rainbow Vegetable “Rice” with Pineapple Coconut Tahini
Ingredients
Tropical Rainbow “Rice:”
- ½ medium head red cabbage chopped into quarters
- 2 large carrots peeled and chopped
- 1 medium golden beet peeled and chopped
- 1 bunch green onion chopped
- 1 large ripe avocado peeled and diced
- 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks optional
Pineapple Coconut Tahini Sauce:
- 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon tahini
- 1/3 cup full-fat canned coconut milk
- 1/3 cup pineapple juice
- 1- inch piece fresh ginger peeled and grated
- 2 cloves large garlic roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Add the chopped red cabbage to a food processor and pulse until rice-sized pieces form. Transfer to a large wok or skillet. Repeat this step for the carrots and beet.
- Add all of the ingredients for the Pineapple Coconut Tahini Sauce to a small blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the sauce over the vegetables, stir well, heat to medium-high and cover with a lid. Once the “rice” is sizzling, reduce the heat to medium, and continue cooking, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until vegetables are soft.
- Add the green onion, avocado and pineapple to the vegetable "rice" and continue cooking until everything is hot, another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Serve alongside your favorite entrée and enjoy!
I think this is what I’ll get for my/wife, I loved the explanations here and thanks so much for your articles. Now I need to choose one of them. the hardest job still. I’ll see what he likes.
TROPICAL RAINBOW.. so beautiful, delicious and healthy. Great informations on your blog, Thankyou so much.
Yessssss- this looks fantastic!
Swap in sweet potatoes for beets, and I’ve gotta tell this is DOING IT for me. Wink wink nudge nudge.
TROPICAL RAINBOW VEGETABLE “RICE” WITH PINEAPPLE COCONUT TAHINI …. I love it. I think rice will make me full and avocado is my favorite fruit. I am in Vietnamese and we are in summer, so I think I have enough ingredients to make this dish easilly. Thank you for your sharing.
looks delightful!!! yumm
https://aspoonfulofnature.wordpress.com/
This looks absolutely amazing! So colourful that you just know you’re going to feel good after you eat it. I love anything with tahini so I need to try this.
Issie x
concealerandkale.blogspot.co.uk
I’m so happy you decided to revolutionize the world of fun, because there’s no way I’m going one more day without a plate of this vibrant rice. High five, friend!
Making rainbow veggie dishes is ALWAYS the perfect way to get out of a cooking funk. I wont’ like, I had crackers and chocolate mousse for dinner yesterday. I need this dish to set me right back on the veggie track!
This sounds absolutely yummy! I can see putting it in your egg scramble. I can also see it with a grain like kamut and possibly a little chicken to round out a salad-type meal. You’re gonna make me have to keep my food processor, aren’t you?!? (I was thinking I might not need it any more…)
😀
You are a freakin’ genius! This rice is so bootimus and healthy, I can’t even stand it. And I love that it’s so adaptable too. GENIUS.
There are so many words I could say about this but all that’s coming out is OHHH MYYYY GAWWDDDD. I’ve been so bad at eating veggies lately and this is the ultimate vegtastic meal paired with my favorite flavah-flaves. Literally making ASAP.
This looks delicious! A nice summer meal. Very creative! Just pinned for later 🙂