Prawn and Egg-White Cauli Fried Rice
Cauliflower rice fried hot and fast with sweet prawns, fluffy egg whites, peas and a hit of garlic and ginger. It scratches the takeaway itch without the heavy lump in your gut, and the whole bowl lands at 360 calories with 42 grams of protein. Twenty minutes, one pan, real food.
Plate 01 / Finished
There’s a little takeaway two streets from my old flat, and for years their egg fried rice was my reward to myself on a Friday. Then I’d go and sit on the bus home holding a hot foil tub like it was a sleeping cat, and by the time I got in I’d eaten the lot and felt about nine hundred calories heavier and a bit ashamed of how fast it went. Fried rice does that. It’s soft, it’s salty, it disappears, and somehow you’re still looking for more.
When I started cutting properly for shows, that tub became a problem. Not because it’s wicked food — it isn’t — but because one portion ate half my day’s calories and left me hungry an hour later. So I missed it. Genuinely missed it. I’d stand in my kitchen on a Friday night feeling sorry for myself like a great bald toddler.
This is the version I built so I’d stop sulking. Cauliflower rice in place of the white rice, prawns and egg whites doing the protein, peas and spring onion and a proper hit of garlic and ginger so it actually tastes of something. It is not pretending to be the takeaway — nothing pretends to be the takeaway — but it scratches the exact same itch. Hot, savoury, a big satisfying bowl you eat with a spoon. And it lands light enough that I can have it and still sleep fine. I make this most weeks now. The bus tub I let go. I’ve got you.
01Who it’s for & when to eat it
Cauli fried rice is a brilliant lean base because it bends in every direction. The protein sits high, the calories sit low, and what you do with the rice underneath decides the whole job. Here’s how I steer it.
The default bowl
All cauliflower rice, prawns and egg whites, peas, garlic and ginger, a teaspoon of sesame oil to finish. Huge volume, low calories — exactly what you want when you’re hungry but the day’s nearly spent. My go-to evening cut meal.
Build it up
The same prawns and aromatics over real jasmine rice, with whole eggs instead of whites and a proper glug of sesame oil. Easy clean calories that go down without the bloat. Numbers are in the variations below.
Steady fuel
Half cauliflower rice, half jasmine, a whole egg folded through for the fats. Light on digestion for an evening, keeps you full, nothing overshot.
Timing: this is a fast, light-on-the-gut bowl, so it’s lovely after evening training when you don’t want to lie down full. It also reheats decently if you’re careful, though prawns are always happiest fresh from the pan.
02Ingredients
Makes 1 big bowl — one generous serving. Doubling for two? Fry the cauli rice in two batches so the pan stays screaming hot and it crisps rather than steams.
Servings 1 · adjust on the live recipe card- Raw prawns, peeled tails off150 g · 5.3 oz
- Cauliflower rice fresh or frozen200 g · 7 oz
- Egg whites120 g · 4 large
- Frozen peas50 g · 1.8 oz
- Garlic, finely grated2 cloves
- Fresh ginger, grated1 tsp
- Spring onion, sliced2 stalks
- Light soy sauce1 tbsp · 15 ml
- Toasted sesame oil1 tsp · 5 ml
- White pepperto taste
Swaps I actually use: want a bulk bowl? Swap the cauliflower rice for real jasmine rice and the calories climb fast in a good way. No prawns? Diced chicken breast works the same — just give it a couple more minutes to cook through. Egg whites feeling too lean? Use two whole eggs instead; you trade a little protein for a richer bowl and a few more fats. A pinch of chilli flakes or a dash of fish sauce both add savour for almost no calories.
03Step by step
Pat the prawns and cauli rice properly dry
If the prawns are frozen, thaw them fully and pat them bone dry with paper towel. Do the same with the cauliflower rice — squeeze frozen cauli rice in a clean cloth, or spread fresh out for a minute. Cauliflower is mostly water, and wet rice in a pan gives you mush, not fried rice.
Magnus says: dry the cauli like you mean it. Wet rice in equals soggy rice out.
Cook the egg whites first, then set aside
Get a wide pan hot over medium with the lightest film of oil. Pour in the egg whites and scramble them quickly into soft curds — 30 to 40 seconds. Tip them straight back out onto a plate. You want them just set, not browned; they’ll go back in at the end.
Two to three minutes, no more
Turn the heat up to medium-high. Add the prawns in a single layer and sear for about 90 seconds a side, until they turn pink and curl into a loose C. The moment they’re opaque through, lift them out and rest them with the eggs. Overcook them and they tighten to rubber.
Magnus says: a tight little O means overdone. Pull them at the loose C.
Garlic and ginger, quick and fragrant
Same pan, still hot. Add the grated garlic and ginger and stir for about 20 seconds until fragrant — keep them moving so they don’t catch and turn bitter. This is where the bowl gets its backbone, so don’t rush past it, but don’t let it burn either.
Get the pan screaming and don’t crowd it
Tip in the dried cauliflower rice and spread it out across the hottest pan you can manage. Leave it a moment to catch before you stir, then keep it moving for 3 to 4 minutes. You want it tender with a few golden edges, not a wet grey heap. High heat is the whole secret here.
Magnus says: hot and spread out, not warm and piled up. That’s the line between fried and steamed.
Peas, egg, soy — then finish
Add the peas and the light soy and toss for a minute until the peas are hot through. Fold the egg whites and prawns back in to warm, then kill the heat. Drizzle over the sesame oil, scatter the spring onion, season with white pepper, and serve it straight from the pan.
04The spec sheet
Real numbers, calculated — not guessed. This makes one big bowl, about 380g of cooked food. Here’s what the whole serving and a flat 100g actually give you.
| Nutrient | Per serving | Per 100g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 360 kcal | 95 kcal |
| Protein | 42.0 g | 11.1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 18.0 g | 4.7 g |
| — of which sugars | 6.0 g | 1.6 g |
| Fat | 12.0 g | 3.2 g |
| — of which saturates | 2.0 g | 0.5 g |
| Fibre | 6.0 g | 1.6 g |
| Sodium | ~0.9 g | ~0.24 g |
Very low. Cauliflower and prawns are mostly water and protein, so you get a genuinely large bowl for the calories — volume is your best friend on a cut, and this delivers it.
A lifter’s metric. A big share of these calories is protein, exactly what you want when you’re holding muscle while the scale comes down.
- Selenium~50 µg · 91% DV
- Vitamin C~95 mg · 106% DV
- Vitamin B12~1.3 µg · 54% DV
- Vitamin K~30 µg · 25% DV
- Iodine~45 µg · 30% DV
- Folate~80 µg · 20% DV
Macros are calculated from standard food-composition data and will shift a little with your exact ingredients and brands. Micronutrient figures are estimates against general adult Daily Values. Numbers are for guidance, not medical advice — see our Nutrition Disclaimer.
05Bulk / Cut / TRT variations
One base, three jobs. The prawns and aromatics stay the same — you adjust the rice and fat around them. Macros below are for a full serving.
The lean default
All cauliflower rice, egg whites, a single teaspoon of sesame oil to finish. Heavy on garlic, ginger and spring onion for flavour. Maximum volume, minimum calories — this is the bowl I live on before a shoot.
Build it up
Same prawns over 180g cooked jasmine rice instead of cauli, with two whole eggs and a full tablespoon of sesame oil. Clean, easy calories that go down without bloat — great for getting food in when appetite’s low.
Steady & balanced
Half cauliflower rice, half jasmine rice, with one whole egg folded through for the fats. Moderate carbs, healthy fats, lean protein — full and satisfied without overshooting your day.
06Meal prep & storage
This one actually preps well — cauli fried rice reheats far better than most low-carb swaps, since there’s no real rice to go hard in the fridge. I’ll cook a couple of bowls’ worth at once and keep prawns in mind for the reheat.
Store the cooked bowl in an airtight container. Cooked prawns don’t keep as long as meat, so eat within two days for the best of it.
The cauli rice and egg freeze passably, but the prawns turn watery and tough on thawing. If you’re freezing, leave the prawns out and add fresh ones at the reheat.
A hot pan beats the microwave here — it drives off any water the cauli has given up. Get it just hot through; don’t push the prawns or they go rubbery.
If you’re prepping for the week, my honest advice is to cook the cauli rice, egg and veg base ahead and keep raw prawns portioned in the freezer. Three minutes in a hot pan for the prawns, fold them through the reheated base, and dinner’s done — barely more effort than reheating, and the prawns taste ten times better.
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07Common questions
How do I stop the cauli rice going soggy? +
Two things. First, get the water out before it hits the pan — squeeze frozen cauli rice in a cloth, or spread fresh out for a minute to dry. Second, fry it on the highest heat you’ve got and don’t pile it up. A crowded pan steams; a hot, spread-out pan fries. That’s the whole game.
Fresh or frozen cauliflower rice? +
Both work, and frozen is honestly more convenient. The only catch with frozen is the extra water, so thaw it and squeeze it hard before frying. Fresh cauli rice has less water but still benefits from a quick dry. Whichever you use, the hot pan does the heavy lifting.
Can I just use real rice? +
Of course — and if you’re bulking, you should. Swap the cauliflower rice for 180g of cooked jasmine rice, add two whole eggs and a full tablespoon of sesame oil, and the bowl climbs from around 360 to roughly 660 calories with 47g protein. Day-old cold rice fries best of all. See the Bulk variation above for the full numbers.
Can I use chicken instead of prawns? +
Yes, diced chicken breast works a treat. Cook it through first — about 5 minutes over medium-high until no pink remains — then set it aside the same way you would the prawns and fold it back in at the end. The macros stay close; chicken breast is just as lean as prawns for this bowl.
Can I make this without eggs? +
You can, though you’ll lose a chunk of the protein and some of the texture. To make it up, bump the prawns to around 200g, or stir in a handful of edamame with the peas. The egg whites are doing real work here, so I’d keep them if you can — but the bowl still stands without them.
This bowl lives inside a full week of meals.
This cauli fried rice is one dinner in my 7-day cutting plan — seven days of high-protein, low-calorie meals with the macros counted and the grocery list written. You pick the goal; I do the maths.
See the cutting meal plan →08Pairs well with
Magnus Olafsson
I’m Magnus — twenty years under the iron, from a cold gym in Stockholm to the classic-physique stage, and now mostly in my kitchen in a pink apron. I’ve cut for shows, bulked through winters, and I’ve been on TRT since I was thirty-five. I know what it takes to eat for the body you’re chasing, and I know it shouldn’t come with a side of shame.
Everything here is food I actually cook and macros I actually count. I don’t diagnose, I don’t promise, and I never make a number up. I just feed you well and tell you the truth.
Slim Diet Era shares recipes and general nutrition information. It is not medical or dietetic advice, and we do not provide guidance on obtaining or using any controlled substance. See our Medical Disclaimer and Nutrition Disclaimer.