Cauliflower Rice with Creamy Ground Beef & Cabbage Dish
Lean ground beef browned with garlic, then buried under a pile of shredded cabbage that wilts down into the curry-coconut sauce underneath. 14 grams of carbs for the entire bowl, with the cauliflower rice crisped separately so it stays dry enough to soak up the sauce.
The coconut milk does two things here. It pulls the curry powder and cumin into a sauce that coats the cabbage instead of sitting on top of it. And it keeps the fat content at 32 grams without needing added butter or cream. One serving: 440 calories, 25 grams of protein, 9 grams of fiber.
Ingredients
- garlic 1 clove
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- cabbage, shredded 1.25 cup
- curry powder 1 teaspoon
- ground cumin 0.5 teaspoon
- soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- coconut milk 1.5 fluid ounce
- cauliflower rice 3 ounces
Method
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Finely chop the garlic clove.
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Heat half of the oil in a pan, add the garlic and ground beef and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook for another 4 minutes. Stir in curry powder, cumin, and soy sauce and cook for a minute. Then add coconut milk and simmer on low heat until the curry sauce thickens.
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Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in another pan and cook the cauliflower rice for 2 minutes.
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Serve the creamy ground beef and cabbage dish over the cauliflower rice. Season with pepper to taste.
Cook the cauliflower rice in a separate pan on high heat so it gets a light char instead of steaming. That crispness holds up against the wet curry sauce better than soft cauliflower rice would. A few cucumber slices on the side add a cold crunch that cuts through the richness.
The cauliflower rice in step 3 is stir-fried, not steamed or boiled. Research on Brassica cooking methods found that stir-frying cauliflower boosted its isothiocyanate yield 7.9 times compared to eating it raw. Boiling and stewing had the opposite effect, reducing yield by 58%. The cabbage in this recipe gets simmered in coconut milk after stir-frying, so that boost applies specifically to the cauliflower rice portion.
Cauliflower Cooking Method Study · DOIBehind this recipe
Is 32 grams of fat too much for one meal?
Not for a 440-calorie meal. 65% of the calories here come from fat, which looks aggressive in isolation. But a single plate is not a daily intake. A review covering 57,000 participants found that total calorie balance predicted body composition changes, not the proportion coming from fat. The question worth asking is whether 32 grams fits within the rest of your day, not whether the percentage looks high on one plate.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use frozen cauliflower rice?
Yes. Thaw it first and squeeze out as much moisture as you can with a clean towel. Frozen cauliflower rice holds more water than fresh, so it steams instead of frying if you skip that step. The stir-frying in step 3 only takes two minutes, and it needs dry rice to get any color on it.
Why is the protein only 25 grams with ground beef in the recipe?
Three ounces of 96% lean ground beef contributes roughly 17 grams of protein. The remaining 8 grams come from the cabbage, cauliflower, and coconut milk combined. 25 grams is a solid single-meal portion, though if you want more, adding another ounce of ground beef would bring it closer to 31 grams without changing the cook time.
