One Pot Spinach Rice

Elena Butuc

I've received lots of questions about the best way to cook pilaf. Although it may seem the simplest possible food, it can also be the most complicated because of some tips you need to know. The basic ingredient, rice, is very important - if you want a sticky, juicy pilaf, choose round grains. If you want your pilaf to be drier, with separate grains, look for long-grain rice. I'm somewhere in the middle, I like it to have tender, individual grains, without juice, and I don't like it mushy and sticky.

Preparation time is another thing and it's not about how long it takes. I pay a lot of attention to the cooking that happens after I turn off the heat. The perfect pilaf is the one that swells slowly, without having boiled for too long.

Also, there is the water and the rest of the vegetables, so the actual preparation method. But the most important thing is being patient. You should reserve about two hours for an exemplary pilaf. Of course, correct instructions are crucial, too :)

I improvised this recipe. This is the cooking method, which generally stays the same, but I change the vegetables - spinach, green peas, broccoli etc. The vegetables that remain unchanged are onions and carrots.

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Ingredients

Metric US

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Rice

2 cups

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Water

4 cups

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Spinach

500 g

already blanched and drained, or frozen

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Carrots

1 piece

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White onion

1 piece

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Turkish pepper paste

1 tsp

optional, can be replaced with tomato paste

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Sunflower oil

50 ml

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Salt

1 tbsp

to taste

Step by step

Wash the spinach thoroughly, leaf by leaf. Blanch, rinse in cold water, then let drain.

See the more detailed steps 1-7 in the recipe here.

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or a deep frying pan. Add the finely chopped onion and carrot and sauté them for a little, stirring periodically.

When they've browned a bit, add the pepper or tomato paste, mix.

Add the finely chopped spinach. Cook everything together for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, measure and wash the rice.

Here I have a 500ml cup, with which I also measured the water. I used one liter of water for 500ml of rice.

Notice that I used round rice (I usually buy Riso Scotti).

Add the rice to the cooked vegetables, stir.

Then pour the water, stir and leave until it starts to boil.

Mix one or two more times in it when it starts to thicken, but after you season with salt, do not mix any more.

When it starts to boil, season with salt, pepper (optionally) and turn the heat to low.

Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Notice the rice swells, but there still is cooking juice in the pot.

Now would be the time to turn off the heat, when rice is cooked al dente and there is juice in the pot.

Next comes the "passive" cooking. After you've turned off the heat, put the lid on and leave for 30-60 minutes without stirring in the pot at all.

Notice that after this while, rice will have absorbed almost all the juice. Your pilaf won't be mushy, but very soft, fluffy and with separate grains.