My Low Carb Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe is full of protein and makes a delicious dinner for the whole family. It’s simple to prepare, full of flavor, and it’s a one pot meal you’ll enjoy making. What a great way to go for a busy night’s dinner. Plus, it’s super easy to clean up the kitchen afterward! Does it get any better than that?

How to Make This Mexican Cauliflower Rice Recipe

I love Mexican recipes in general. They can generally be made with simple, wholesome ingredients, and I love the traditional Mexican flavors! Plus, they can make a perfect low carb, high protein meal.

This recipe is essentially a quick and healthy take on how to make burrito bowls in a diabetic friendly way. There are only four simple steps to making this Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe. And it will be on the table in about 30 minutes!

1. Prepare your ingredients

The first thing we will do is our prep work: start a large pan over medium heat, and add the olive oil to warm. (You could probably get by with an extra large skillet, but I use a larger pot and double the recipe.)

Then we will gather and prepare our ingredients. Give the onion and garlic a good chop. Next, drain the corn and black beans. And now we are ready to get cooking!

2. Start Cooking the Meat

First, we will sauté the onion until softened, 2-3 minutes. Then add in the garlic. Cook and stir for a few seconds.

Then, add in the raw ground turkey. You will want to break up the turkey into small pieces as it browns. (If you don’t have my favorite meat-breaker-upper pictured below, you need it in your life. No joke!)

Once the meat is cooked through and broken up, you will want to drain off any excess fat.

3. Add in Other Ingredients

Then, return the cooked turkey to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Now it’s time to stir in the frozen riced cauliflower, salsa, black beans, corn, and chili powder. (Make sure you break apart any large pieces of cauliflower that froze together in the store-bought package first.) Give it a good stir to mix it up, and then add in the chicken broth (or vegetable broth, if you prefer). Turn up to medium-high heat to cook thoroughly.

Simmer for 10 minutes or so, until all foods are cooked through.

4. Add Toppings

This is one of my favorite parts of making this Mexican Cauliflower Rice Bowl — adding toppings! There are different ways to go about it, so do what you prefer.

I personally prefer to add a bit of shredded cheese, sour cream (or plan greek yogurt), avocado, and green onion. You could also add on some fresh cilantro if you like, or pour on some lime juice as the perfect addition to this Mexican fiesta in a bowl. And as easy as that, you have yourself a low carb, high protein bowl of goodness to enjoy!

CARBS FOR This Easy Mexican Cauliflower Rice RECIPE

There are definitely carbs in this Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe. They come mainly from the corn and black beans.

With the specific brand of ingredients I used for this recipe, the entire total was 135g of carbs. With this recipe making # servings, that’s 17g of carbs per serving. Take out the 4g of fiber per serving, and we are left with 13g net carbs per 1 cup of this recipe. (Need help counting carbs for your recipes? Check out my blog post with step-by-step instructions!)

Be sure to work this into your diet in the best way you manage your diabetes. And be sure to count the total carbs (or net carbs when dealing with fiber) in the specific products you use. Different brands vary in ingredients, so be doubly sure of the nutritional information in what you’re eating.

What Makes this Recipe Diabetic Friendly?

The term “diabetic friendly” is considered differently by different people. Of course, we all have unique diets and preferences and ways to manage our diabetes. And although many people with type 2 diabetes may limit carbs and sugar intake for more of a low carb lifestyle, some people with type 1 diabetes will tell you they can eat literally whatever they want as long as they dose for it.

For me, after living with type 1 for 30+ years, I consider something to be diabetic friendly if it is either:

• a recipe that combines fiber, fat, and protein to help stabilize blood sugar levels to avoid a blood sugar spike
• a more diabetes friendly alternative to the ingredients you would normally find in a traditional version of that recipe

This recipe is both — just like another of my Mexican favorites with last week’s enchilada recipe!

What qualifies this recipe for option 1 above is that there is good fiber (mainly from the beans), ample fat (from the ground turkey), and good protein (from the turkey and black beans primarily).

This recipe is also bullet point #2 because this is a much more healthy alternative than we might typically see in this kind of a recipe in general.

What to Serve with this Mexican Cauliflower Rice Recipe

What should you serve with this Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe? Great question… I don’t have many ideas on a perfect side dish, because this could very easily be an all-in-one meal. One of my favorite ways to eat this is to scoop it up with tortilla chips, and it’s all I need for a tasty side dish! But you could certainly serve it with whatever you like.

Why is Mexican Cauliflower Rice a Favorite of Mine?

First of all, this recipe allows me to use frozen cauliflower rice. Could I be a go-getter and rice my own cauliflower florets in a food processor or box grater? Sure. But I don’t see a need to make fresh cauliflower rice when I can purchase a package of pre-riced cauliflower from the freezer section at the grocery store and just dump it in to the pot. The frozen stuff is perfect for cauliflower rice recipes!

Another thing I appreciate about this Mexican recipe is that there’s no waiting for the rice to cook. Because there’s no regular rice! Traditional Mexican rice or Spanish rice are fine and all, but if I don’t have to cook rice ahead of time, that’s an easy way to save time. Also, it’s lower carb, and I appreciate that.

Something else I appreciate is that even my husband (who can at times be picky pickerson at the dinner table) tells me he can’t actually tell the difference in this dish between when I use riced cauliflower and traditional rice. Now that’s a good thing!

This is a super flavorful recipe full of simple ingredients that will fill you up and keep you full.

VARIATIONS ON This RECIPE

This Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe is pretty easy to tweak to how you like it best. Here are a few ideas for next time around:

• Want extra veggies? I could definitely see adding in some chopped bell peppers, or green chilis, other kinds of peppers, if you like. Add in whatever you pick from the produce section that makes you happy and healthy!
• Looking for a lower carb recipe for a low-carb diet? Then leave out the corn. That alone removes 31g of carbs for the entire recipe, and 4g carbs per serving. That would put you at 13g per serving before considering fiber.
• Want a thicker consistency or more of a tomato flavor? Consider adding tomato paste or chopped tomato.
• Need some more heat in this recipe? Create some bold flavor by adding jalapeno peppers or red pepper flakes to kick it up.

MAKE AHEAD INSTRUCTIONS

This Mexican Cauliflower Rice recipe is certainly one that can be made in advance. Prep it a day ahead even, and simply pop the lid on the top of the pot or place it in an air tight container to keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat. This could also be a great recipe for meal prep for the week.

When warming up, you can do that on the stovetop (after setting the pot out for a while so it isn’t so cold when it goes on the heat). Or you can simply scoop it into individual bowls, and just reheat in the microwave.

STORING FOR LATER

As I mentioned, this can certainly be made in advanced and stored for later. You can easily put your leftover Mexican cauliflower rice in the fridge for a few days. In addition to refrigerating it until you’re ready to serve it, you can also freeze it for later.

This recipe doubles very easily, so you can make a lot at once and freeze some of it for later. Just be sure to place it in a freezer bag or freezer safe container first, and you’re good to go.

And now for your free recipe:

DID YOU MAKE THIS Mexican Cauliflower Rice RECIPE?

If you’ve made this recipe, would you please let me know? I would love to hear from you!

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NOTE: I am not a certified nutritionist or registered dietician. Nothing here should be taken as professional medical advice. Any nutritional information provided should be used as a general guideline and estimate only. For the most accurate information, please calculate based on the specific ingredients and brands you use, as well as any changes you make to the recipe.

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