The best recipes come from our mothers, or so a saying should go. For the month of February, me a 22yr old male is trying to eat healthier while in a sharehouse situation. (We don’t have an oven in our place so the deep fryer is its replacement)
I was going pretty well, reducing my serving sizes and putting salad on the plate instead of deep fried chips. Except that my ‘salads’ were a bland combination of lettuce, tomato, onion and some dressing that I didn’t like. After discussing this problem with my mother (while at their place scoring a free dinner) she produced this recipe.
It looks pretty good, takes 20mins to ‘cook’ and stores well. It reminds me of a more vegetable heavy fried rice.
My mother thought it good idea to write “Garlic if liked” for her “ignorant in the ways of cooking with herbs” son, which i took as an invitation to add a whole clove. If you like garlic I suggest probably a half clove and if you REALLY like garlic then a whole one… Mine along with the frozen mixed vegetables contains a 400g can of chick peas which the vegetarian housemate suggested that I should add and looking back on it, it was a good idea.
This recipe lasted me as a side dish on 5 meals.
Recipe -
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped (Garlic if liked – See note above)
1 tbsp masterfood moroccan seasoning (I personally think this needs to be upped to about 3 tbsp, considering its 450g of rice and the moroccan got lost by the time all the other ingredients were added.)
2 cups frozen coles australian mixed vegatables
450g pkt mircowaveable brown rice
1/2 cup toasted silvered almonds (Mine contains cashews instead)
1/3 cup sultans or raisins.
Process:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium. Cook onion for 5 mins, until soft. Add spice mix and stir for 1 min, until fragrant. Add vegtables and cook for 3-5 mins, until tender.
2. Stir through rice, 1/4 cup of water, almonds and sultanas and cook for 1-2 min to heat through. Remove from heat and stir through tomato.
3. Serve pilaf in bowls topped with corriander and extra toasted almonds.
