Rice Surprise

Colorful wonderful tasting basmati rice is a great way to sneak in extra veggies. Now I love one pot cooking, since it makes for a quick and easy clean up. But speaking of cleaning up, you will be cleaning up this side rice dish rather quickly as you and your family gobbles it up. Heats up the next day perfectly as well...

Ingredients:

1 cup basmati rice
1 large onion sliced
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3-6 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
3 stalks scallions, chopped
2-4 good shakes of red chili flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon or more of freshly cracked pepper
1 and 3/4 cups water
2 tablespoons or less of olive oil
Pot with tight lid
1 clean dish towel or paper towels

Directions:

Put olive oil in pan and add onions.
Let onions sweat not sautée in pan till translucent (cook on medium low – you do not wish to brown the onions) (heck, it’s ok if some browning occurs)
Add chopped peppers and garlic, let sweat for five minutes
Add rice and all spices. With wooden spatula or spoon, stir till well combined.
Let rice get coated with the olive oil and spices.
Then add water, stirring once and put up heat and allow to come to a boil.
Once boiling, turn down heat to low and put on tight lid on pot.
Set timer for 12-14 minutes. (Don’t peek! – you will let important cooking steam out)
Once timer chimes, take off lid, and with spoon, pull away rice and see if any water still exists on bottom of pan. If so, allow to cook for another few minutes.
Once water has evaporated, turn off heat under pot and place folded clean dish towel (or paper towels) just over pot and just under lid. Let rice’s extra steam be soaked up by towels and let sit for at least 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
When ready to serve, fluff up rice with fork and add freshly chopped scallions to rice.
Serve up your rice surprise along with your favorite main course. Photo provided shows my rice surprise side dish along with my version and take on Noir’s chicken with garlic and lime that I made with pork chops.

This is yet another little trick to sneak in some vegetables for your family to consume, the color of this rice dish is amazing and the taste can't be better.