Description
This healthy and insanely delicious brown rice jollof recipe is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, kosher, and the perfect side dish for every occasion. This brown rice recipe cooks very quick, and has a yummy nutty flavor. This dish is a winner, a crowd-pleaser, and hands down the best brown rice recipe! Whether you are looking for Thanksgiving side dish, Christmas side dish, or just good old dinner this recipe is just right and perfect!
Ingredients
1 packet of Ralston farm Golden Light-Brown Rice or 3 cups.
1 large or medium size beet
1 ripe plantain
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 fresh bells pepper
1 Roma tomatoes
4 cups of vegetable broth (add in parts; I used homemade broth)
3 garlic cloves
1 – 2 teaspoons of salt
1 bulb of onions (divide; use half to blend the tomatoes and slice half up for frying.
1 teaspoon of curry Powder
½ teaspoon of dry thyme
½ teaspoon of crushed red pepper
3 Small Maggi cubes (1 per cup of rice)
Instructions
- Wash the beets; peel the back and dice. Then add to a pot, add water, and some salt. Boil to soften, taste with a toothpick or fork. The amount of time this takes will depend on how big/small the beets are.
- Wash, peel, and cut the plantain. Cut the same size as the beets. Season with a little salt, and fry/sauté. Set beets and plantains aside for later.
- Add the washed bell peppers, ¼ of onions, garlic cloves, and tomato with a ¼ cup of water or less, blend and set aside. Chop ½ of onions and garlic set aside as well.
- Open the box of the Ralston Family Farm Golden Light-Brown Rice, and pour it into a bowl. Add cold water to the rice bowl, wash the rice until the water becomes clear, then drain for the final time and set aside.
- Place a clean pot on the stove; add the olive oil, warm up, and add sliced onions. Allow cooking until softened about 2 – 3 minutes then add the tomato paste. Cook while stirring continuously until it no longer tastes raw. This may take up 7 minutes, then introduce the fresh bell pepper/tomato blend. Stir very well, cover, and cook for at least 10 – 15 minutes (stirring frequently) until the liquid visibly reduces, and the sauce thickens.
- Lower the heat, add the salt, curry, dry thyme, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and 2 Maggi cubes, stir very well, and add half of the broth. Stir, cover, and allow all of these flavors to simmer. Taste and adjust the flavor when it starts to simmer, and then add the rice. Gently use a wooden spoon or spatula to ensure that the rice is evenly distributed, then add another cup of the broth to the rice.
- Use foil to cover the pot first, then place a lid on it—cook on low – medium for the next 25 minutes. Check the rice; the rice may still be a little hard at this time. Gently give a good stir, and add the last cup of broth.
- Cover yet again with the same foil and cook/steam on low for 10 – 12 minutes. Then open the pot, stir to see fluffy single grains of perfectly cooked brown rice Jollof!
- Add the already cooked beets and plantains, little by little, as your dish into the serving bowl. Finish up with spring onions. Serve this healthy brown rice Jollof recipe as a side or main dish!
Notes
Please know that the instructions to make this dish is detailed because I want you to make the best Jollof rice. I want you to replicate my result.
Make this dish meaty by add meat to it.
You can make it vegetarian by adding some fish or serving with some fish.
Serve this side as the main dish; it works perfectly fine.
PRO TIPS:
As a rule of thumb, we traditionally cook Jollof rice on low heat or low-medium heat. This way, there is an excellent infusion of all the flavors. I hope you map out good cooking time if you plan to make this dish!
Jollof rice cooks with steam, not water or liquid; do not add a lot of liquid to this dish. This dish SHOULD NOT be mushy; we want to see individual grains in jollof rice; remember, it is not risotto. Usually, I start by adding half of the broth.
Making the sauce is an essential part of making jollof rice, and may take a little additional time. If you already have an authentic west African stew, you can easily add washed rice to it and make your healthy brown rice Jollof (the start from step 6), but if you don’t, then it is crucial to make the sauce the right way if you desire to have the same result that I did.
I wash the rice with cold running water 6 – 7 times until the water is no longer cloudy.
When it comes to olive oil, I do one tablespoon of olive to one cup of rice, so I used 3 tablespoons for this recipe.
Remember to have a different oil for frying the plantain and sautéing the beets. I used peanut oil; do not fry with olive oil.
Remove the seed membranes from the pepper, and if using a big onion, then a quarter of that is all you need to blend with the tomato, garlic, and bell pepper. You need as little water as possible for this. I don’t necessarily blend this to look like puree; I stop when it is barely smooth, the texture is essential in this dish.
The amount of salt you end up using for this dish will depend if your broth is salted or not.
The foil traps the heat back into the post and helps the rice to cook well even with less water and low heat.
The cooking includes making the sauce as well, if you do have sauce, then this time drastically shortens.
