Who likes food with no flavor? I certainly don’t. Rice is a good filling starchy food that rounds out almost any meal and is a great filler in chicken soup. While rice is a fantastic staple food and has probably saved millions from starvation, alone white or brown rice doesn’t have much in the way of flavor. One of the best things about rice is that by it’s very bland nature it’s the perfect subject experimentation. You can add all kinds of flavor to rice.
Slightly less bland:
To make every day rice with more flavor than the butter you slathered on it cook your rice in stock instead of water. If you’re making a main dish that features chicken use chicken stock, red meat: use beef stock. You could also add a little red wine to your beef stock and white wine to your chicken stock to give it an extra layer of flavor. Just be aware that store bought stocks tend to have pretty high sodium content. As an alternative to store bought stocks you could roast your own chicken/turkey/beef product and keep the bones for stocks. I like to make my own stocks so I have control over the flavor and the salt.
Bland? Not in the slightest!
Lately I’ve been on a Mexican food kick. It started with tacos night and now I’m onto more advanced things like mole. But this post is about rice so rice it is. I made a really awesome Spanish rice. And the best part is it’s really easy.
Brown rice
Chicken stock (instead of water)
Butter
Tomato paste
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Chili powder
Bell peppers chopped (I used 3 colors just to make it pretty looking)
Check your brown rice package for serving sizes. Follow the directions on the package regarding the cooking time and how much liquid. When you boil the chicken stock add the butter and tomato paste. I used 2 pats of butter and 2 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste. You can also add the garlic, onion, and chili powder now. This will help the flavors to distribute evenly in the rice. Cook the rice as directed. While the rice is cooking soften the bell peppers in a frying pan over medium heat. You can add a little bit of oil to the pan here if you feel it needs it. Once the rice is cooked and the bell peppers are softened mix the bell peppers into the rice and serve alongside your favorite Mexican or Spanish dish.
The peppers can be swapped out for other vegetables that you may have on had. Onions or tomatoes would work very well here. For a garnish you could sprinkle cilantro over the top.
