Paleo Nasi Goreng – Indonesian Fried Cauliflower ‘Rice’

Inspired by Indonesia’s classic nasi goreng, this paleo fried rice dish uses finely diced cauliflower and carrots, prawns and chicken flavoured with sambal oelek. It’s low-carb, gluten-free, satiating and very nutritious.

This is a recipe I made a while back but I decided to bring it back to the light because it’s really delicious. This paleo fried ‘rice’ is made with cauliflower, chicken, shrimp, and delicious spices and chilli sauce is inspired by nasi goreng.

What Is Nasi Goreng?

Nasi goreng is Indonesia’s national dish, and if you’ve been to Bali you would have tried it on more than one occasion (or every single breakfast for me when I go there). In fact, most of you would’ve tried a similar dish in one form or another, as nasi goreng literally means ‘fried rice’.

I love the heat from sambal chilli and the sweetness of ketup manis sauce used in the traditional recipe – it flavours the rice beautifully. Plus, you get to mix in the runny yolk from the fried egg served on top.

Although I do eat white rice every now and then, I really wanted to make a low-carb, paleo version of this gorgeous Asian dish. Not sure I can call my recipe nasi goreng as it doesn’t actually contain the key ingredient – rice, or nasi in Indo and Malay. I used finely diced cauliflower and carrots, plus a decent amount of chicken and prawns for protein, and flavoured the dish with sambal oelek sauce.

Cauliflower Rice Nasi Goreng Tips

Sambal is made with lots of red chillies, garlic, shallots, and lime. There are many variations, but you should have no problem finding a standard sambal oelek in supermarkets and Asian grocers. You can make your own and store it in a jar in the fridge to use in stir-fries and other dishes.

Instead of using the super sweet ketup manis sauce, which is essentially sweet soy sauce, I used Tamari wheat-free soy sauce and honey. You can use coconut aminos instead of Tamari for a 100% soy-free version.

It took me 30 minutes to make this dish, but as I am a bit of a rocket in the kitchen, allow yourself 30 to 40 minutes.

I used chicken thighs because I find the meat is more tender, but you can easily use chicken breast or turkey meat. For a vegetarian version, omit the chicken and prawns, and use mushrooms and extra vegetables and tempeh instead.

More Cauliflower Rice Recipes

Full Recipe 

Find the full list of ingredients, instructions, and a nutritional breakdown below. If you have questions or cook this recipe, please let me know in the comments, and make sure to rate this recipe so it’s easy for others to find.