Recipe Review: Middle Eastern Rice w/Beans
*dreamy sigh* Happy belly.
It's been one of those weekends where I felt so restless and draggy all at the same time, you know? I've got a lot on my mind right now but no real outlets. So you know what that means: kitchen experimentation time!
All I knew going into this was that this month's recipe had to involve ground turkey because I just randomly browned a pound of it the other night with no real plans for it. Usually, I'd just toss it into a pasta sauce and have at it. However, it's a rare occasion that I'm jonesin for some pasta and the mood hasn't hit me lately (even though Pesto Chicken Floren-Tica sounds like a good idea for sometime soon). The other complication is that, when I get into a mood like this, I must have food with a bold flavor to it. Just my pallet at work. So I sat down and started checking out recipes and was juuust about to give up when I came across this one. Looked like a good challenge to me since I had absolutely no idea what the heck it was supposed to taste like. LOL!
(My recipe notes in italics)
Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas
Original ingredient list netted 8 servings. Waaay too many for not knowing what I was getting into, so I halved it.
INGREDIENTS
* 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1/2 clove garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup uncooked basmati rice --I subbed 3/4c. uncooked brown rice
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Sub for cumin/coriander/turmeric: Curry powder! I ended up using 1.5tsps, IIRC, for lots of flavor
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper --all out of cayenne. subbed chili powder instead
* 2 cups chicken stock --Swanson less sodium/ff chicken broth
* 3/4 pound ground turkey --1 lb 93/7 ground turkey
* 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
* 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
* [Optional]: 1/2 bunch chopped fresh cilantro, 1/2 bunch chopped fresh parsley, 2 tbsp pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste --I didn't actually end up using any of these optional ingredients. LOL! I used 1/2 bunch of fresh spinach in lieu of the cilantro and parsley.
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute. Stir in rice, cumin, coriander, turmeric curry powder, and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, then pour in chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. This was a new experience for me: creating flavor for the rice before I even cooked it. I loved the way it smelled. Rice definitely didn't take 20 minutes to cook though. More like 15ish and I didn't want the rice to absorb all of the liquid because ground turkey tends to be a little dry.
2. Place the turkey in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until evenly brown. Cooking my turkey and seasoning it beforehand saved me a ton of time here, I think.
3. Gently mix cooked turkey, garbanzo beans, black beans, cilantro, parsley spinach, and pine nuts into the cooked rice. Heat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper. I didn't feel the need to add salt/pepper by the end of this. I guess between the fact I'd already seasoned the ground turkey (McCormick's Italian Seasoning grinder) and had doubled the curry powder, this dish already smelled incredible without needing to add more.
The result was a relatively quick, beautifully colorful, fragrant, and very yummy dish. Halving the recipe still made a ton of food. Four very satisfying and protein-packed servings at under 500 calories! If I remember, I'll take a picture of the dish tomorrow to add to this so I can remember what it looked like (I was on the phone and ready to dig in, so no pic tonight. LOL!)
-Ticachu The Cook
It's been one of those weekends where I felt so restless and draggy all at the same time, you know? I've got a lot on my mind right now but no real outlets. So you know what that means: kitchen experimentation time!
All I knew going into this was that this month's recipe had to involve ground turkey because I just randomly browned a pound of it the other night with no real plans for it. Usually, I'd just toss it into a pasta sauce and have at it. However, it's a rare occasion that I'm jonesin for some pasta and the mood hasn't hit me lately (even though Pesto Chicken Floren-Tica sounds like a good idea for sometime soon). The other complication is that, when I get into a mood like this, I must have food with a bold flavor to it. Just my pallet at work. So I sat down and started checking out recipes and was juuust about to give up when I came across this one. Looked like a good challenge to me since I had absolutely no idea what the heck it was supposed to taste like. LOL!
(My recipe notes in italics)
Middle Eastern Rice with Black Beans and Chickpeas
Original ingredient list netted 8 servings. Waaay too many for not knowing what I was getting into, so I halved it.
INGREDIENTS
* 1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil
* 1/2 clove garlic, minced
* 1/2 cup uncooked basmati rice --I subbed 3/4c. uncooked brown rice
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
Sub for cumin/coriander/turmeric: Curry powder! I ended up using 1.5tsps, IIRC, for lots of flavor
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper --all out of cayenne. subbed chili powder instead
* 2 cups chicken stock --Swanson less sodium/ff chicken broth
* 3/4 pound ground turkey --1 lb 93/7 ground turkey
* 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
* 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
* [Optional]: 1/2 bunch chopped fresh cilantro, 1/2 bunch chopped fresh parsley, 2 tbsp pine nuts, salt and pepper to taste --I didn't actually end up using any of these optional ingredients. LOL! I used 1/2 bunch of fresh spinach in lieu of the cilantro and parsley.
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute. Stir in rice, cumin, coriander, turmeric curry powder, and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, then pour in chicken stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. This was a new experience for me: creating flavor for the rice before I even cooked it. I loved the way it smelled. Rice definitely didn't take 20 minutes to cook though. More like 15ish and I didn't want the rice to absorb all of the liquid because ground turkey tends to be a little dry.
2. Place the turkey in a skillet over medium heat, and cook until evenly brown. Cooking my turkey and seasoning it beforehand saved me a ton of time here, I think.
3. Gently mix cooked turkey, garbanzo beans, black beans, cilantro, parsley spinach, and pine nuts into the cooked rice. Heat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper. I didn't feel the need to add salt/pepper by the end of this. I guess between the fact I'd already seasoned the ground turkey (McCormick's Italian Seasoning grinder) and had doubled the curry powder, this dish already smelled incredible without needing to add more.
The result was a relatively quick, beautifully colorful, fragrant, and very yummy dish. Halving the recipe still made a ton of food. Four very satisfying and protein-packed servings at under 500 calories! If I remember, I'll take a picture of the dish tomorrow to add to this so I can remember what it looked like (I was on the phone and ready to dig in, so no pic tonight. LOL!)
-Ticachu The Cook