Crispy Chili Ground Beef and Cauliflower Skillet

Extra lean ground beef and cauliflower florets join forces with a sweet and spicy chili crisp sauce to make a 25-minute protein source that’s perfect for rice bowls. Each serving has 26 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber with only 310 calories. That leaves plenty of room for rice, low calorie yum yum sauce, and all the fixin’s.

I’ll walk you through everything you need below and cover substitutions as we go. If you’re in a hurry, there is a full recipe card at the bottom of the post for you to print or save for later.

Ingredients for Chili Crisp Cauliflower and Ground Beef

Other than the obvious ground beef and cauliflower, you will only need scallions, olive oil or your choice of oil, and a handful of ingredients for the sauce.

The Chili Crisp Sauce

• Chili Crisp or Chili Crunch – I always keep Lao Gan Ma or Momofuku on hand, but any chili crisp works for this recipe.
• Honey – It’s hard to beat the honey and chili crisp combo, but you can substitute another sticky sweetener like the maple syrup in my Japanese BBQ chicken. You can also try saving some calories and carbs with artificially sweetened syrups or brown sugar substitutes like Swerve.
• Soy Sauce – Coconut aminos are a great soy-free soy sauce alternative.
• Vinegar – The recipe calls for black vinegar, which is a slightly sweet vinegar akin to balsamic vinegar. Use the latter if that’s all you have on hand, but I would pick up a bottle of black vinegar to use in other recipes like black pepper beef.
• Double or Triple Concentrated Tomato Paste – Look for the tubes of tomato paste and experience the added flavor and richness of concentrated tomato paste. There’s a big difference!
• Scallion Whites – Thinly slice and save the greens for garnish. Don’t wanna? Substitute for something like crushed garlic or even garlic powder.

Most of the calories in the sauce come from the chili crisp itself. If you’re using extra lean ground beef, the added fat is nice and helps with browning and flavor. Highly recommend it.

That said, you can find oil-free chili crisps these days, and I’m interested to try them. Things like dried chiles, onion and garlic granules, and toasted sesame seeds make up the bulk of non-oil ingredients in chili crisp. You can try adding them straight to the sauce if you’re on a low fat diet.

Cooking the Ground Beef and Cauliflower

One of my favorite ways to cook ground beef and other ground proteins is to pan roast a veggie like cauliflower or broccoli then setting aside while cooking a protein. The residual heat and steam perfectly cooks the vegetables while the meat cooks. Then everything comes together with a sauce and—boom—you have a complete protein and veggie combo ready in less than 20 minutes.

And that’s exactly what this recipe calls for. You just heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with a tablespoon of olive oil before adding a pound of chopped cauliflower florets. The cauliflower should pick up a good amount of color in just a few minutes.

Then you can transfer it to a bowl, cover, and carry on with the beef.

The only tip I always give for simple ground beef and veggie combos is to make sure you leave the beef alone in the pan long enough to develop some browning. Once it hits the pan, don’t flip it or break it apart until a crust has formed on the bottom. Extra lean ground beef won’t brown as much as, say, 80/20 hamburger, but it will still develop plenty of browning if given the time.

Making This Recipe in Bulk

As a side note about doubling the recipe, you will likely need to use a second skillet to handle the amount of cauliflower. You can also transition to roasting the cauliflower in the oven if you prefer. My buffalo chicken and cauliflower recipe calls for roasting cauliflower florets at 450ºF for 30-35 minutes.

You can see why I like the pan roasted method. Much faster! Chopping the cauliflower into smaller pieces does speed things up, however.

How to Serve and Pairing Ideas

Jasmine rice is my go-to pairing for ground beef or insert protein and veggie combo here bowls. I usually plug my low calorie rice blend as a way to save carbs for rice bowls. But since that’s a jasmine and cauliflower rice blend, I think that’s cruciferous veggie overload.

You might try something like riced hearts of palm or even another starch alternative like protein ramen or noodles instead to save calories, if needed.

In addition to rice in my photos of this cauliflower ground beef skillet, you will see the scallion greens, a low calorie yum yum sauce (included in the recipe card’s notes section), sesame garlic crunch, and Korean pickled radish.

The flavor profile of this recipe would also work with things like the creamy blended kimchi sauce from my bulgogi ground beef and other pickled or fermented veggies. If you have go-to sides for Asian-inspired dishes, cut ’em loose here.

Tips for Storing Leftovers and Reheating

If you decide to make this recipe in bulk or have leftovers, I like to pair servings with rice and garnishes that will reheat well in meal prep containers to store in the refrigerator for 2-3 days or freeze for longer.

To reheat from the fridge, cover and slightly vent in the microwave for 3-4 minutes until heated through.

I like to let frozen meals thaw in the refrigerator overnight if possible. But you can totally reheat straight from the freezer with the right containers. I’ve been using the recyclable paper containers, which make that a lot easier than something like glass containers.

Time to get cooking! Everything else you need to know should be in the recipe card below. I hope you love this ground beef and cauliflower skillet. If you do, I appreciate recipe reviews.