Why You Should Avoid Making Riced Cauliflower Ahead Of Time

Versatile cauliflower rice is a great way to add more vegetables to your plate and cut down on simple carbs from time to time. You've probably seen the shredded product in the freezer section of your grocery store in both plain and preseasoned versions — it's a convenient product to have on hand. Cauliflower rice is also simple to make with a few pulses of your food processor (or by grating on a box grater). But, a key thing to consider when it's time to cook up a batch: Cauliflower rice does not hold long in the refrigerator, whether cooked or raw.

The Brassica plant family has a reputation for creating strong flavors when overcooked or held for too long in a closed container. You might have experienced this with smelly cabbage soups and microwaved broccoli at work, and you can expect a similar aroma from cauliflower rice that is made in advance. The good news is that the odor is not related to spoilage; it's just the natural sulfur content in the vegetable becoming activated through cutting or cooking.

If you've had this experience with cauliflower rice that you made in advance for meal prepping or just from leftovers, it may have put you off from cooking it again, but there's an easy fix to the issue. Adjusting your timing is key. Try to cook your cauliflower rice at most one day in advance or, better yet, if you're buying bags of the frozen product, just make the amount you'll use for the next meal. Frozen cauliflower stays odor-free compared to the freshly grated variety whether you buy it or make it at home.

Store-bought frozen cauliflower rice can be a bit watery and finely chopped, so if you prefer the texture of freshly grated cauliflower rice in your dishes, the smell solution is simple – freeze bags of the raw riced vegetable in the right portion size for the meals you prepare. A bonus: Freezing will soften the texture of the cauliflower a bit, making cooking even faster, and you can cook the rice substitute directly from the freezer.