Ground Beef Taquitos w Street Cauliflower Rice

About

The whole family will like this Mexican street-cart inspired meal! If your kids like spicy foods, you can include them in this recipe too. Keto taquitos are made with a decadent cheese sauce and ground beef filling. The filling is rolled up in a completely Keto “tortilla” shell, made entirely of cheese. Paired on the side is a scoop of cauliflower rice, styled after the popular Elotes you would normally purchase from a street cart. Instead of corn, riced cauliflower is cooked with paprika and lime juice. A special hot sauce mixture is drizzled throughout the rice before it’s topped with cotija cheese and plenty of chopped cilantro. If you don’t have cotija cheese available to you, the best substitution is to use grated parmesan cheese.

Make The Perfect Cheese Tortillas

Any time you want to make Keto tortillas, crackers, or crisps out of cheese, just follow this handful of tips to look like a Keto recipe expert. The next time you bake the cheese in your oven, watch the process. You’ll see the oven heat melt the cheese in its exact shape, then you’ll see the cheese bubble for several minutes. Once enough air has escaped, the cheese will release any fat and reduce to a darkened square or circle with many small air holes in it. When you see the edges turn darker than the centers, it’s time to remove your tray from the oven. Once the cheese hardens, you’ll have a crispy product that is strong enough to handle some fillings and any wandering fingers.

Re-Heating For Meal Prep

If you want to store this meal in meal prep containers, make sure both the taquitos and cauliflower rice are completely cooled before you do so. You’ll also want to soak up any excess fat on the taquitos with a paper towel. Any extra moisture trapped in your container is what’s going to ruin your taquitos during re-heating. When re-heating, separate the taquitos from the street rice. Heat the taquitos on a paper towel in a microwave. You’ll need to pay close attention to avoid over-heating the taquitos, which will start to melt your cheese tortillas.

Ingredients

9 ounce cauliflower, raw
1 ½ teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoon lime juice, fresh
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoon original red hot sauce by frank's
1 teaspoon, grated queso cotija
1 tablespoon cilantro or coriander leaves fresh or raw herb
10 ounce ground beef
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon cumin, ground
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon onion powder
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 fl oz cream heavy whipping
¾ cup, shredded cheddar cheese
6 slice (from pre-sliced package) – each 3/4 ounce colby jack cheese

Instructions

Make the street cauliflower rice first, so you can focus on the taquitos later. Use a cheese grater to rice whole florets of cauliflower. Do not use thawed cauliflower rice from frozen in this recipe. Toss the riced cauliflower with the olive oil in a large pan over high heat on the stove. As the cauliflower rice cooks, season with salt, pepper, and paprika. Once the cauliflower rice is all charred and tender, stir in the lime juice. Take the pan of rice off the stove and set aside.
In a small dish, microwave the first amount of butter until it melts. Stir the hot sauce into the butter until you have a thickened hot sauce. Drizzle the sauce over the pan of cauliflower rice. You can leave it on as a drizzle or stir the rice so it is all coated evenly. Garnish the pan with crumbled cotija cheese and chopped cilantro. Again, leave the pan aside for later.
Next, break up ground beef in a new pan with a spoon as you heat it on high heat over your stovetop. No oil is needed here. Season the ground beef with salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Continually stir and break up the beef until it cooks all the way through. The more crumbly and crisper the beef, the better it will be in this recipe.
Set the pan of beef aside to cool slightly. In a third, smaller pan, melt the second amount of butter over low heat. Stir in the cream and heat the liquid until it starts bubbling. With the stove on the lowest heat setting, stir the cheddar cheese into the cream and butter. Once you have a thick cheddar sauce, stir it into the pan of ground beef. There shouldn’t be much extra sauce pooling up in the pan, and you should see a thick beef filling “glued” together with cheese.
Now, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a large sheet tray with parchment paper. Arrange individual slices of Colby Jack cheese on the sheet tray. Bake the cheese slices for 10-12 minutes. You’ll see the cheese melt, bubble, and settle into dark squares with small air bubbles throughout. Remove the tray immediately and set it on top of your stove. Have the pan of beef filling and a spoon ready to go.
One by one, spoon the cheesy beef filling on the left side of each cheese slice vertically. The cheese should already be cooling rapidly. Use your fingers to lift the left edge of each cheese slice up and fold it over the filling. Roll each slice of cheese all the way to the right to secure the filling in place and finish the taquitos. If necessary, reheat the pan of street rice until it’s warm. Serve approximately ⅓ cup rice with 2 taquitos per person.