30-minute recipe: Make this shrimp stir-fry over cauliflower grits from new cookbook

Cauliflower might just be the hardest-working vegetable around. It’s subbed in for everything from steak to rice to pizza crust to, now, grits.

The latest release from Whole30, the popular clean-eating diet, features a recipe for shrimp stir-fry over cauliflower grits.

In keeping with the Whole30 philosophy, the recipe doesn’t feature any added sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes or dairy — with its exceptions of clarified butter and fruit juice as a sweetener.

The recipe is one of 150 featured in “The Whole30 Fast & Easy Cookbook” ($30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Melissa Hartwig — a follow-up to her 2016 bestselling “The Whole30 Cookbook” — with an emphasis on recipes that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less using grocery store-bought ingredients.

That includes cauliflower rice — if you can get your hands on it at places like Trader Joe’s — or you can make your own by chopping up a head in a food processor until the florets are in rice-size pieces.

You can also make your own clarified butter, which lacks the milk proteins found in normal butter, or buy the nuttier-tasting ghee online or at health food stores.

The end result is “incredibly creamy and decadent-tasting cauliflower grits,” notes Hartwig.

Shrimp stir-fry over cauliflower grits

Serves 4

2 slices Whole30-compliant bacon, chopped

For the cauliflower grits

2 bags (12 oz. each) frozen riced cauliflower, or 6 cups raw cauliflower rice

1⁄4 cup clarified butter or ghee

2 tsp. minced garlic

1⁄2 tsp. salt

1⁄2 tsp. black pepper

1⁄2 cup Whole30-compliant unsweetened almond milk

For the shrimp

1 tbsp. clarified butter or ghee

1 1⁄2 pounds peeled and deveined medium shrimp

2 tsp. minced garlic

1⁄2 cup sliced green onions

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Set aside on paper towels. Reserve 1 tbsp. of the drippings in the skillet.

Make the cauliflower grits: While the bacon is cooking, place the riced cauliflower in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cover and cook on high for 5 to 6 minutes or until hot. Let stand 1 minute. Add the butter, garlic, salt, black pepper and almond milk. Using an immersion blender, blend until fairly smooth. Cover and keep warm while cooking the shrimp.

Make the shrimp: Add the butter to the skillet with the bacon drippings. Add the shrimp and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the garlic and green onions. Cook, stirring, until the shrimp are opaque, about 3 more minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. (You can also use cooked shrimp: Add them after the garlic and green onions have softened and cook, stirring, until heated through, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.)

Serve the shrimp on the grits, sprinkled with the bacon and parsley.