These crispy, spicy, and cheesy rice balls are the perfect way to use up cauliflower rice. I saw a recipe online that used regular rice and breadcrumbs. I knew right away that I had to try and recreate this with cauliflower. The inside is like a jalapeno popper, and the outside has a wonderfully crunchy texture thanks to the pork rind and Parmesan coating.
If you have some leftover cauliflower fried rice on hand, then this would be a great recipe to make use of that. I’ve included instructions for baking these in the oven, as well as using an air fryer. The air fryer is my favorite, but these are great both ways!
Yields 3 (3-ball) servings of Jalapeno Cauliflower Rice Balls
The Preparation
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and diced
- 1 large egg
- 50 grams pork rinds
- 4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 60 grams pork sausage
- 225 grams cauliflower rice
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 60 grams shredded mozzarella
The Execution
1. Preheat your oven to 425F. Add the cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, and diced jalapeno to a microwave-safe dish. Microwave for 30 seconds, or until soft, then stir together to combine thoroughly
2. Grind the pork rinds and Parmesan cheese in a food processor until you have a homogenous breadcrumb type texture. Transfer the pork rinds to a shallow dish. Whisk the egg together in another shallow dish to finish setting up a dredging station for the rice balls.
3. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Fry the pork sausage until it’s no longer pink in the center.
4. Add the cauliflower rice to the sausage then stir to combine. Season with salt then continue cooking until the cauliflower rice softens.
5. Stir in the jalapeno cheese mixture, and the mozzarella, then keep stirring until everything is fully combined. The cheese will act as a binder for the rice balls, so you want it to be mixed evenly.
6. Remove the rice from the heat, then let it cool.
7. Use the coconut oil to grease an ice cream scoop and your hands. Scoop up the rice then form into uniform balls with the palm of your hands.
8. Coat each ball with egg then dredge in the pork rind breading mixture.
9. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. If you have an air fryer then you can lightly grease the fryer and bake at 400F for 6 minutes, turning the rice balls over halfway through the cooking process.
This makes a total of 3 servings of Jalapeno Cauliflower Rice Balls. Each serving comes out to be 390 calories, 29.6g fats, 4.1g net carbs, and 24.7g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 2 tablespoon cream cheese | 99 | 9.9 | 1.2 | 0 | 1.2 | 1.8 |
| 1 tablespoon heavy cream | 51 | 5.4 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| 2 tablespoon jalapeno pepper | 4 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| 1 large egg | 79 | 5.2 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 6.9 |
| 50 gram pork rinds | 286 | 17.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27.2 |
| 4 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese | 108 | 7.2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 9.6 |
| 1 tablespoon olive oil | 119 | 13.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 gram pork sausage | 195 | 16.4 | 0.9 | 0 | 0.9 | 11.1 |
| 225 gram cauliflower rice | 56 | 0.7 | 11.3 | 4.5 | 6.8 | 4.3 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 gram shredded mozzarella | 180 | 13.2 | 1.3 | 0 | 1.3 | 13.2 |
| Totals | 1176 | 89.2 | 17.2 | 4.8 | 12.4 | 74.6 |
| Per Serving (/3) | 392 | 29.7 | 5.7 | 1.6 | 4.1 | 24.9 |
Jalapeno Cauliflower Rice Balls
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 tablespoon jalapeno pepper de-seeded and diced
- 1 large egg
- 50 gram pork rinds
- 4 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 60 gram pork sausage
- 225 gram cauliflower rice
- salt and pepper to taste
- 60 gram shredded mozzarella
Instructions
- In a microwave-safe container, add cream cheese and heavy whipping cream. Microwave for 20-30 seconds until soft. Add the diced jalapeno and stir to combine.
- Prepare your dredging station. In one container, whisk eggs. Separately, grind in a food processor or chopper pork rinds and parmesan cheese until homogenous. Place in another container.
- Over medium heat, add olive oil to the pan. Add pork sausage and cook until no longer pink.
- Add cauliflower rice. Stir to combine. Continue until the cauliflower is tender and cooked through.
- Add cream cheese mixture. Stir to combine.
- Add the mozzarella and quickly mix together. Note that the cheese will act as a binder therefore it is important to incorporate everything together, creating a dough.
- Remove from heat and let stand until cool to touch.
- Scoop dough and with slightly wet hands, roll into uniform balls.
- Roll the balls in the egg to coat then dredge in the pork rind/parmesan breading mixture. While dredging, you may use the palm of your hands to uniformly coat the balls with the breading.
- Lightly grease Air Fryer with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 minutes, turning halfway. Note that like ovens, air fryer times may vary. Look for golden balls. Alternatively, you may bake these using the conventional oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
