Recipe: Rice Pilaf

Sunday I had a few friends over and made an insanely awesome dinner with garlic-scented tomato salad, crusty french bread with garlic herb butter, chicken breasts stuffed with feta cheese, artichoke hearts, and roasted red bell pepper, mix greens salad, rice pilaf, and warm apple crisp for dessert. Delicious. I came up with the recipe for the rice pilaf last year and after making again on Sunday, thought I’d share it. Regrettably, I did not take pictures of the process.

Note: if you want a more vegetarian-friendly dish, substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth. Also, if you don’t have (or don’t want to use) olive oil, regular vegetable oil will probably do the trick just fine.

For this, you will need:
Half a medium onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
Olive oil (or regular vegetable oil)
1 cup short-grain brown rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon wild rice
1 can of mushroom, drained

Begin by sautéing the onion and garlic in the oil over medium heat; cook until the onion is slightly translucent. If you’re like me and not the biggest fan of onions, fear not; you won’t be noticing these at all when it’s done. Add in the brown rice and give it a good stir to mix everything together, then add the broth shortly thereafter. Bring the broth and rice to a boil, adding the mushrooms and wild rice along the way. Once you’ve reached a boil, reduce the heat and cook for approximately 45 minutes (white rice will take much less time than this). The first time I made this I forgot to add the wild rice; I like it in there but it’s mostly an add-in. You can always experiment and add a few other things to the rice.

Enjoy!