Bryant Terry's Amazing Green Rice
After 70-something consecutive days of cooking and being holed up at home, I was in serious need of some recipe inspiration yesterday. As I was staring blankly into my fridge, I came across a container of brown rice leftover from the previous night’s dinner (a rarity, but Max decided to make Fonio Pilaf* to go with the Masoor Dal and Charred Eggplant I’d made, so the brown rice I prepared went largely uneaten). I settled on making my favorite fried rice for lunch, but then I remembered my dear friend, Rebecca, had recently texted me an intriguing recipe for Bryant Terry’s Amazing Green Rice as seen on Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks, so I quickly switched gears. If you’re a green-juice fan, you’ll love this recipe…it’s basically green juice and rice with some sautéed onion, garlic and green pepper, and, as you can see, the end result is quite the stunning shade of green. Full disclosure: the recipe calls for uncooked (although preferably soaked overnight) long-grain white rice, and I had cooked short-grain brown rice. But I was fully committed at this point, so I went for it. The good news…it was a big hit and required less prep time, since the rice didn’t need to cook for 15 minutes (which also led me to add a 1/2 cup less stock than it called for, fyi). Next time I’ll give the uncooked rice a try, plus I might add some chopped jalapeño for a little extra zing. And take Heidi’s advice, and top the rice with some chopped nuts for added crunch.
Note (from Heidi): If you have the time, Bryant has you soak the rice grains over night covered with water plus 1 tablespoon vinegar. If you skip this step, it’s ok just increase your cooking time by a few minutes. Also, I bump up the amount of garlic in this rice because I love it. And I substituted coconut milk because I had an open can, and coconut rice is luxe and delicious.
*Max is dong some consulting for Yolélé, the company that’s exporting Fonio—a nutty-tasting type of millet—from Senegal, which is similar to couscous. We hadn’t tried it yet, so Max asked Cate to buy some at Whole Foods and prepared it with dinner. It’s finer and more flavorful than couscous; it’s also gluten free and nutrient rich.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 cup tightly packed spinach leaves, stems removed
1 cup tightly packed kale leaves, stems removed
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water (I went with 1 cup since my rice was already cooked)
2 tablespoons full-fat coconut milk or cashew cream
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onions
1/2 cup diced green peppers
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
Preparation
In a blender, combine the spinach, kale, stock or water, coconut milk, and salt, and puree until smooth. Set aside.
Drain the rice. Rinse it thoroughly and set aside.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and bell pepper and sauté until soft, about five minutes. Add the garlic, and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for a minute or two, toasting a bit. Raise the heat to high, pour in the contents of the blender, and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated, 15 to 20 minutes—perhaps a bit longer if you skipped the overnight soak.
Remove from the heat and set aside to steam for 10 minutes. Immediately before seeing, fluff the rice with a fork. I like to serve topped with some crunchy nuts or any of the other toppings suggested in the post.
