I love Italian food. The real Italian food, not the commercial kind that involves canned tomatoes and oodles of processed cheese.
You see, Italian cooking isn’t really about Pasta and cheese. Don’t get me wrong- I LOVE pasta, cheese, and ESPECIALLY thin crust pizzas. But I just want to remind everyone that Italian cooking is about making the most of fresh, seasonal ingredients. In my case, Italian cooking is about making the most of whatever I have in my pantry and freezer 😛
Tonight was one of those weeknights after a really, really long day at work, when you need to feed your stomach but your heart doesn’t desire/crave anything in particular.
A quick peek through my pantry and I realized it’s time to go grocery shopping, as I’m missing A LOT of basic ingredients. Let’s just say, I don’t even have onions. That should put things into perspective.
Then I saw an unopened bag of brown rice. Jackpot! I grow my own rosemary. I had parmesan in the crisper. Dinner wasn’t looking so bad after all!
To make my Garlic and Herb Rice, you will need the following:
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice (soaked in water for about 15 minutes.
- A tablespoon of rosemary.
- A teaspoon of oregano.
- A tablespoon of finely chopped garlic
- A dash of olive oil
- A quarter cup of parmesan (its not Mac n Cheese, people!)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil, garlic and rosemary to a thick based saucepan and fry it for a couple of minutes.
- Drain the soaked rice as add to the same saucepan. Stir fry in the same oil for a couple of minutes. Feel free to add some chili flakes at this point too, if you like everything a little spicy the way I do.
- Add 1.5 cups of boiling water. Cover with a lid and cook on low heat till water dries out.
- Stir in the parmesan cheese.
- Spoon into serving dish. Sprinkle some more parmesan on top if you’d like, and crush some black pepper on top.
It’s as simple as that!
There’s no reason weeknight meals shouldn’t feel as gourmet as weekend ones, especially when you can trick yourself by ALWAYS using nice dinnerware!
You’re welcome.
