Mexican Rice

I offered to make dinner for a friend’s birthday a few weeks back, and out of all of the options offered, she choose enchiladas, black beans, mexican rice, plus the works (salsa, guac, etc). This was great considering enchiladas are probably one of the easiest and most satisfying dishes to cook in large quantities, but I realized that I’d never made mexican rice before let alone looked at recipes to see the amount of work that would go into it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dish is quite easy to make and quite frankly, delicious! I had to vary the original recipe a bit since my friend’s husband isn’t the biggest fan of corn, but it was great without.

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1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup brown rice

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn

1 bunch green onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon chili powder

Cook rice according to package directions.

When there is 15 minutes left for rice to cook, add tomato paste with about ½ cup of water (may need to add more depending on how moist the rice is).

Add spices and let simmer.

In a separate pan, sautee the garlic and onions in olive oil until fragrant (about 5 minutes).

Add corn and peas and cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until garlic begins to brown.

Once the rice is moist and soft, add the garlic/onion mix and cook for another 3-5 minutes.