Lebanese Spinach Rice
I absolutely love and will try any exotic food, but when it comes to Basamati rice, I’m just not into it, you can’t even pay me to eat it. (shrug) It has a distinctive perfume fragrance, no texture, way too fluffy and not filling at all, to make matters worse it doesn’t have much nutritional value either.
Until one day recently we were having friends over for dinner, one of them only goes for Basmati rice…. ahhh….can it more tricky? I had to come up with something for our guest. Thank Google! It lead me to find this gorgeous recipe and completely made over my old enemy, Basmati rice. This dish originates from Lebanon, and according to Google, this is a traditional common dish that every Lebanese woman knows how to make it.
- Ingredient 1: Basmati rice, chopped spinach, diced onion, olive oil
- Ingredient 2: Chopped cilantro, 3-5 garlic, sea salt. Put them all together in the magic bullet until pureed (oh by the way, magic bullet ISN’T that magic, way, way, over rated)
- Ingredient 3: Roasted pine nuts (I used slivered almonds as they were handy) and non-flavored yogurt
Put the chopped spinach, onion and Basmati rice together in a pot with water and bring it to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. mix the cilantro puree into the rice. Stir well. Put a spoon full of yogurt on top and sprinkle with roasted pine nuts or almonds. That’s it!
Honestly I couldn’t believe the spinach and cilantro could make for such a transformation, the flavor is amazingly yum and additively delicious, an awesome side dish.
A successful makeover indeed.
