Food Files: Riced Broccoli with Olive Salad & Greens
“Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food.” Craig Claiborne

Food Files: Riced Broccoli with Olive Salad & Greens
If you are an inquisitive foodie, you’ve probably come across the latest food rage – riced cauliflower and riced broccoli. Both are considered ideal substitutes for rice. While I admit that as a foodie, with a healthy vegetarian-based diet, I love these new riced dishes, I still love rice in all its permutations; brown, white, red, black, yellow, and more. Rice is a big part of my childhood memories so it is not a food I take lightly. That said, when I started reading about rice vegetables, I knew I had to give it a try. I have eaten both the cauliflower and the broccoli versions and like them tremendously. I’m sharing a recipe with the broccoli version because it occurred to me to write about it while I was preparing the dish. You can substitute either vegetable with the recipe. For the mixed salad greens, I combined a mixture of organic greens with chopped cucumber, shredded carrots, chopped granny smith apples, a few dried raisins, and a dash of lemon juice and kosher salt. I added a few slices of avocado and the Olive Salad recipe is in the second half of my post below.
Sautéed Riced Broccoli or Riced Cauliflower
Ingredients
1 15oz bag of Riced Broccoli ( it comes coarsely chopped into the smallest bits. You can make yours from scratch too)
1-2 Tbsp Olive oil.
2 cloves of fresh garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
1/2 tsp rosemary seasoning
1/2 tsp basil seasoning
1/4 – 1/2 tsp garlic or kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-2 tbsp water
Preparation
In a heated medium to large-sized Wok or frying pan, add the oil, fresh garlic and ginger, seasonings, and salt and stir quickly for a few seconds. Add the riced broccoli and sauté for 2-3 minutes making sure all the ingredients are folded in evenly with the broccoli. As the broccoli cooks and turns slightly translucent, add the pepper and a tablespoon of water to infuse some steam into the dish. Stir for another 1-2 minutes and then remove the wok/pan from the heat. Taste to make sure it suits your preferred texture. I like mine crunchy with a slight softness. Since adding water to your sauté creates steam that helps cook the veggie, you may add another 1-2 tbsp to meet your desired texture. Serve hot as a side or with a protein of your choosing.
Olive oil by Chris Loud via poetrysoup.com
You asked if we could both eat healthier
And I was not excited in the least
I tried the kale and beets; they weren’t for me
Quinoa and tofu taste a lot like air
I knew you got frustrated as I smirked
You might think to yourself “Is he for me?”
I knew I’d have to try again for you
The next time we made lunch I took the lead
The jar of sandwich spread that I revealed
It made you smile and look me in the eye
The mayo-nnaise was made with olive oil
Less calories and saturated fat
We spread it on the bread from multi-grains
I said the special words; you knew I cared
“…with Olive oil”. You said, “I love you too.”
More Below!
“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.” Swedish Proverb

Food Files: Riced Broccoli with Olive Salad & Greens
As you can tell from my post title, I created another dish to complement my riced broccoli. What makes the Olive Salad a divine and perfect choice is that it brings a zest and delightful touch to the broccoli dish. It is very easy to prepare and if you are in a hurry, you can always buy it prepared at your local specialty shop. What I love about mixing and matching foods is that it gives us a chance to create foods that satisfy all our standard cravings; pair a crunchy, spicy dish with a smooth, sweet dish and throw in some salty bit to round it up. Another thing you might have noticed from my food posts is that I love to use Olive oil in my cooking; ideally, organic and cold-pressed. I also love, love, love Oliviers & Co fresh basil macerated in extra virgin olive oil. It is simply divine and adds a delicious, robust dash of basil to your dish. For my Olive Salad, I combine both types of Olive oil and it makes the dish sing.
Olive Salad with Basil macerated Olive Oil
Ingredients
a variety of olives of your choice (mix up colors; green, black, brown, earth red olives)
1/4 cup of finely chopped radish
1/2 cup of finely chopped carrots
1/2 cup of finely chopped Cauliflower
1/4 cup of finely chopped pepperoncini
1/2 cup of finely chopped sweet peppers
1/2 cup of finely chopped celery
1/4 cup of capers
1-2 minced cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp lemon pepper salt
1/2 tsp oregano or rosemary spice
1/2 cup Basil macerated Olive Oil
1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
Preparation
There are 2 ways you can make this dish; The first is to prep all the vegetables in advance in a processor or a blender with a fine chopping button. Sauté them slightly with a little bit of the olive oil and then mix all the ingredients together in a large metal bowl. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes before serving so the combined vegetables can marinade in the oil, spices, and vinegar. The second way is to add the ingredients in small servings to your processor and gradually blend them all in for a smoother, creamier finish. I prefer the first approach because I like crunchy vegetables and mixing them together in a bowl after chopping them up preserves some of the crunchiness of the vegetables. This is a delicious, healthy dish and you can make it from all raw vegetables or slightly sauteed ones… Cooked or steamed vegetables are not recommended. Enjoy! Prep time 15-20 minutes. Ready to eat in 30 minutes.
A Food Label Lament by Elisabeth Sheaffer via poetrysoup.com
Every day there’s folk who expound
on what we should eat, and I’ve found
they all promote a point of view
of what they think is good for you.
The manufacturers don’t comply
and in the face of reason fly,
for taste is what makes products sell,
that’s what the listed contents tell.Please ignore the sugar and salt,
which isn’t really all their fault.
They do it to improve the taste
so that it doesn’t go to waste,
or you’ll just throw it in the bin.
After all, it isn’t a sin
to stop your food from tasting bland
when additives are close at hand.Once, it was E-numbers that prevailed
and colourings were much bewailed
for they were always thought to be
such harmful things for you and me.
Now it’s sugar and salt to blame
and fat to add another name.
Cakes and biscuits, well they’re all bad
and chocolate is banned, which makes us sad.For something has to sweeten life
which frankly is too full of strife.
Should it really turn out this way?
It’s quite impossible to say.
At any rate some comfort food
lifts our spirits and cheers our mood.Let’s ignore what’s on the packet,
advertising’s just a racket.
It may be good or may be not,
the main thing is, don’t eat a lot.
Everything in moderation,
that will be our health’s salvation.
Copyright © Elisabeth Sheaffer | Year Posted 2017
Have a Happy, Healthy 2017!
Positive Motivation Tip: Enjoy a variety of foods as the more you explore the more you’ll enjoy!
PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos from my Personal Collection except cauliflower via Pixabay
Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet
That salad looks absolutely amazing and healthy ! All of my favorite things!
Vegetables are not my thing. I also don’t like the idea of trying to make this recipe loook like this but without the this. I feel food should be made to stand out not look like the other one. I’d sill try this though.
This recipe for riced broccoli sounds delicious! I had tasted coliflower rice, but not broccoli rice. Thank you for sharing!
Looks yummy! I need to try it!
I still prefer to eat stir-fried broccoli with tofu. They taste great!
this recipe is so healthy and looks so yummy ! Where is my fork I wanna dig right in
veggies! hahaha i never really liked eating vegetables since i was young.. lol then again i know we really need to eat them to maintain a healthy body.. liked what you shared here elizabeth.. 🙂
That looks really delicious! I’m surprised by adding ginger to it, I’ve never thought about that:)
First rice cauliflower, now rice broccoli, this is really amazing sruf. Super gree, so it must be healthy for you!
This rice and broccoli looks amazing! I always forget the awesomeness of oilives in a green salad too. Which is too bad, because it’s awesome! This looks like a great recipe!
Everything does look delicious. I wish I liked to cook but alas, I hate it. I do love to eat though.
This made me SO hungry!! And I am currently eating haha. I am a vegetarian so you had me at Rice Broccoli! I need to buy a WOK, I know you mentioned a frying pan will work but I think the wok will really do this dish justice in my stir process. This looks SO good!
This truly looks so healthy and cleansing! The ingredients make it a light and delicious meal 😀
Over the last few years, healthy eating has become an interesting task, to say the least – I can’t have broccoli or cauliflower or multiple other veggies, but this looks so good I’d certainly see if I can tweak it with the veggies I CAN eat!! Thanks!!
The Sautéed Riced Broccoli or Riced Cauliflower sounds very interesting. This would be great for my diet. Thanks for sharing!
I wasn’t aware about the broccoli but I sure have tried the cauliflower one. I think it’s a lovely substitute. I love rice as well and it’s a norm in our country to have it during every meal. A healthier alternative is aways welcome for me though.
I agree with you on the first approach being the best. I like a crunch to my veggies
I love salads (or I should say I eat a lot of it cos I am trying to loose weight). But this recipe looks much more delicious than what I usually eat. Will try and give a feedback as well.
Yum!! I love making a variety of salads several times a week during the summer. This will have to be added to my list.
I know ricing cauliflower is huge now, but I have never tried it. This is the first time I has seen it done with broccoli and now I am even more intrigued! I really need to try it. Your pictures are stunning and this recipe sounds amazing, love the poetry you add!
Your recipe is so wonderful! I feel I’m going to live for more than 100+ years if I’m to try and eat it.
“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.” Swedish Proverb, right about sums up everything huh? off to try out the Sautéed Riced Broccoli or Riced Cauliflower dish.
I have riced cauliflower but never broccoli. I love how unique this recipe is. I will be making it soon.
This looks so delicious. I can always use another healthy recipe to make. Thank you for sharing.
I’d love to try this recipe sometime, it looks great. I love anything with broccoli in it.
This looks absolutely amazing! I have yet to try riced broccoli, will definitely have to add this one to my recipe box!
I love the poetry added to the recipe! I’m a firm believer in moderation. I don’t deprive myself of anything delicious 🙂
Riced broccoli sounds so good. I bet there are a million things that you can do with it. I’ve only ever had riced cauliflower. The olive salad greens looks delicious too!
The salad looks amazing. I really could go for one right now. And the fact that you had an olive salad as well. Mmmmmm. I love green olives.
This looks simply delicious!! Anything with broccoli sounds good to me!!
Ooh I’ve never tried riced broccoli. That looks delicious. It looks like it has a texture of maybe rice pilaf? I’m going to look for this at the store.
When i get tired of eating rice, I resort to green salads. It is lighter and a lot healthier
This is beautiful! Thank you for all the recipes! You bet I will be making them!
That sounds absolutely delicious. I could seriously eat this every single day for lunch.
Yum! This looks like my kind of meal! I’m totally big on veggies right now and not only does this have tons of green but it looks like it’s packed for of flavor as well!
This looks so delicious! I need to trey this recipe asap! my husband loves when I surprise him with new tjing in the kitchen, he will love it! thanks for sharing!
oh wow this looks and sounds amazing so tasty I may just have to give it a try for myself
Very nice recipe. We are used to eating rice with Broccoli. This is one of kids favorite dish. We will definitely add other ingredients as you suggested and see how we like it.
I haven’t tried those yet. They sure look healthy. I just hope they are palatable.
it’s my first time to see you posting food recipe! this one is interesting! i love broccoli so much!
I may say, one should really love cooking whatever kind of foods it is.This looks so yummy!
These are really healthy trees. I remember loving broccoli because it looks like a mini tree. It’s also good for the health.
I’ve seen riced cauliflower (I have some in my freezer right now, actually!) but I haven’t seen riced broccoli! This looks delish!
Oh goodness how delicious does this look?! Thanks for the idea – I definitely need to make some of this ASAP! And hopefully my kids will think it’s “rice” 🙂
I am a vegetarian too but this is my first time hearing of riced broccoli, it looks heavenly, I would love some right now. Healthy too!
Your recipe looks really good, so I might have to try it! I’m just not a fan of food substitutions like that haha – I rather use normal rice.
I love this idea! I’m always trying to figure out different ways to create healthy meals for the kids.
It sounds like a delicious recipe! I have never come accross Riced brocoli, I even have a hard time to realise what it exactly is?
Anything with broccoli makes me happy! My mom loves olives and would definitely enjoy this salad.
that sounds amazing! Ive heard of riced cauliflower but broccoli is new!
What very unique recipes! Thanks for sharing!
MMMH!! Thats so delicious! I know now what to do with the broccoli in my fridge…
I’ve seen a recipe for cauliflower rice and it looks good, and then I see your riced broccoli recipe and it looks even better! I am going to get some broccoli at the store today and make this for dinner. I’ll probably pair it with chicken or fish sticks. 🙂
I’m a hug salad (and greens) girl at heart .. and this one looks wonderful! I love all of the different kinds of veggies (for color and taste). While I haven’t tried making it myself .. I’ve been seeing cauliflower rice showing up more and more often (especially in Paleo recipes). I haven’t thought about trying broccoli. Genius idea!
hmmm. I haven’t ever had riced broccoli before but it looks delicious. I love broccoli and rice – so I am sure this would taste great too.
Very interesting. I like broccoli and I know I can totally enjoy eating this one. For cauliflower though, that may be more difficult. 😀
Never had riced broccoli before. My daughter loves broccoli. I wonder if I can make this to suit her taste. Will have to give it a try,
I love fried rice with broccoli and I am fond of rice. I will try this for sure. Great recipe.
These look yummy. I will have to try them out. My toddlee loves eating salads so this would be great.
Looks great. I absolutely love broccoli. It taste great with everything.
Like you, I also love rice! But I’m also a lover of veggies, so raced cauliflower and broccoli sound delicious! Maybe I should try this in an attempt to get some vegetables down my fussy eating 7 year old …?! 🙂
Oh how interesting! I think in our country we use corn as an alternative for rice. I would love to try your recipes, it’s healthy and it looks so delicious!
This recipe sounds very interesting as never tried with riced broccoli and a very good option to eat your greens as well.
This ia so healthy. I’ve been browsing the internet for easy to cook healthy recipes and thIs is just perfect. My kids love broccoli.
Interesting recipes. I am definitely going to try one of those, with my own twist and see how it goes?
I’ve made riced cauliflower before but I’ve never tried it with broccoli. It sounds delicious, broccoli is one of my favorite foods. Yum!
Gennifer Rose
I’ve tried cauli rice in my attempt to a low carb diet but I’ve never tried broccoli rice yet. This I just have to try since I love broccoli.
I’ve tried cauli rice in my attempt to a low carb diet but I’ve never tried broccoli rice yet. This I just have to try since I love broccoli.
We love using olive oil in our dishes. It is so much better. I live this recipe of the riced broccoli and olive salad greens.
Food looks absolutely yumm… I’ve been seeing a lot of riced broccoli & cauliflower around, but never tried it!
This recipe seems so delicious! I’ll try to do it, it’s interesting and healthy!
That looks delicious, I just wish that I had the time to make more complex meals during the evening after work.
I absolutely loved these recipes!!! The dishes look so healthy and am sure they taste awesome too…Will surely try out.
This is the first time I’ve heard of riced broccoli and it is almost the most surprising thing I’ve heard for quite some time~ will definitely go check out on this to see if there’s more recipes!
What a great way to enjoy broccoli or cauliflower, it sounds delicious.
I like that the recipe has a lot of healthy ingredients. Cooking is another form of art. You need to know what you`re doing to create a masterpiece.
It looks delicious, and I love the colours on the plate! It’s funny, my grandma always used to talk about how the colours on the plate really add to the presentation of the dish, and I think that is definitely the case here! Thanks!
Your recipes always seem so good! I love rices broccoli as well so this recipe definitely caught my attention.
Guess what, I usually take cauliflower with broccoli with some chicken breast for my lunch. Your recipe looks more appealing as it has some basil and rosemary seasoning. I love basil leaves and wonder how the taste like if I added in the basil leaves.
Why have I never thought of ricing my broccoli?!?!?!?! I’m transitioning into a vegan lifestyle and this is a very helpful recipe for me. Thank you.