Garnish rice with vegetables: recipe and cooking tips

No wonder rice is considered the third bread of the world, along with wheat and corn. Asian people eat this cereal every day. There are many famous rice dishes. It is enough to recall Japanese sushi, Uzbek pilaf, Italian risotto, Spanish paella. But these are all independent dishes. We are used to eating rice for a side dish. How to cook it so that it is tasty, crumbly, fragrant?

Close already tired of ordinary rice with butter? Then you can make a complicated side dish! Rice with vegetables is an excellent accompaniment to the main dish. Such a side dish is suitable for both meat and fish. Below we will tell you how to cook loose cereal separately and with vegetables. We will also give recipes for cooking a side dish and main course in one pan. Many housewives use a slow cooker. With it, the rice on the side dish will turn out even tastier. After all, this device uses the technology of slow languishing.

Rice selection

When we cook semolina, we don’t particularly bother with cereals - any company will do. But rice is a different matter. For six thousand years of cultivation of this cereal, man has bred many varieties. This is not to say that some of them are bad and others are good. They just have different functions. Round grain rice is good for sushi. It gives off a lot of gluten, thanks to which the rolls do not fall apart.

But the French word garnir means "fill" and "decorate." Clumped lumps of rice are unlikely to cause appetite, even if they accompany a wonderful dish of meat or fish. For a side dish you need friable cereal. And it is obtained only from long-grain rice of certain varieties. It can be basmati, parboild, jasmine. You can take steamed rice. Such a variety will cook faster.

How to cook fried rice for a side dish. Method one

1. Rinse a glass of rice until the water becomes clear.
2. We shift the cereals into a saucepan with a thick bottom.
3. Bring two glasses of water to a boil.
4. Fill it with rice. Salt to taste.
5. We put the pan on maximum heat.
6. When the liquid boils again, cook another seven minutes.
7. Mix in a circular motion once. Let's make the fire minimal.
8. We cover the pan (preferably with a glass lid to control the cooking process) and leave to cook for another quarter hour. Mixing is not recommended.
9. Also, you can not lift the lid - the groats should languish in pairs.
10. After 15 minutes, turn off the fire.
11. Put on the surface of the rice one and a half to two tablespoons of butter.
12. Lower the lid and wait another 20 minutes.
13. Grain to grain, crumbly, moderately dry and fragrant rice is ready. Now it can be seasoned with spices.

How to cook rice on a side dish. Second way

We will cook rice in a deep pan.

1. First, put on its bottom 50 grams of butter.
2. We put the dishes on medium heat.
3. When the butter is melted, pour 300 grams of rice into the pan.
4. Stir, fry until the grains become like a translucent bugle. It will take 2-3 minutes.
5. Add an incomplete teaspoon of salt.
6. Pour half a liter of boiling water.
7. Immediately cover the pan with a glass lid and make the fire very small.
8. We wait half an hour. During cooking, the lid must not be lifted. A side dish prepared in this way does not need to be seasoned with oil. But some sauce will not hurt him.

There is also the third, easiest way to cook friable rice. These are bags of cereal. Such rice does not need to be washed or observed in clear proportions of water. Even a child can make delicious loose cereal from sachets. After waiting for the time indicated on the package, turn off the fire. We cut the bag and season the finished cereal with oil. Having mastered the basic recipe, let's now prepare a complex side dish - rice with vegetables.

Simple recipe

We purchase a package of frozen vegetables. It can be Mexican or some other mixture. Separately, cook rice - one of the above methods. Oil cereals in this case do not need to fill. Now we need to combine to make a side dish, rice with frozen vegetables.

1. First, pour a little vegetable oil into the pan.
2. When it warms up, pour out the frozen vegetables. Tomim them on a small fire. Vegetables should not only thaw, but also put out.
3. We follow the process, if necessary, add oil.
4. When the vegetables are completely ready, add cooked rice.
5. Mix and let it brew for a couple of minutes under the lid.
6. We serve such a side dish for meat, and on fasting days it can become an independent dish.

Rice with boiled vegetables

125 grams of dry cereal will require one medium-sized carrot and 60 g each of green peas and corn.

1. Cook rice in one of the above ways.
2. In parallel with this process, we put a pot of water on the fire.
3. While it is heating, peel the carrots.
4. Cut it into semicircles or small pieces.
5. Pour them into boiling water. Let's wait until the water starts to boil again.
6. Boil another 8 minutes.
7. Now add the remaining vegetables to the carrots, that is, green peas and corn. Salt to taste.
8. Wait again for boiling again and boil for 6 minutes.
9. Set a colander on an empty pan. Throw back the vegetables.
10. The broth, gathered in a saucepan, can become the basis for soups or sauces. And we shift the vegetables to a pan with preheated vegetable oil.
11. Stirring, fry them for one or two minutes.
12. Put the cooked rice.
13. Mix and warm our side dish under the lid. Rice with vegetables is ready. It immediately needs to be served to the table.

Sophisticated side dish in one pan

Until now, we cooked rice and vegetables separately, mixing them only at the final stage of the culinary process. Let’s try now to do otherwise.

1. Peel the onion and carrots, chop them in small pieces.
2. From the bell pepper (preferably red) we extract the seeds, cut the flesh into thin strips.
3. Pour 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a deep pan.
4. Fry vegetables for five minutes.
5. Add 100 grams of green peas.
6. Mix and fry for another 5 minutes. At this stage we put two glasses of water in a kettle to boil.
7. Salt the vegetables in a pan, add black pepper, sweet paprika, coriander, dried herbs and a large pinch of saffron. Mix, wait another minute.
8. We fall asleep a glass of long-grain rice. You can not wash it. We do not mix the contents of the pan, but simply distribute the rice groats in an even layer on top of the vegetables.
9. And immediately fill with boiling water. Lower the glass lid, reduce the heat.
10. We wait 20 minutes. When the cereal absorbs all the liquid, we scoop up the contents of the pan from the walls to the center with a spatula, laying out the slide.
11. We make fire minimal. So steaming rice with vegetables for another quarter hour. The side dish is ready.

Cooking in a slow cooker

Why not connect kitchen assistants to the process? Devices will take on the task of adjusting the temperature. A slow cooker will reliably hold steam for cooking cereals. The principle of preparing a complex side dish is similar to the previous recipe for rice with vegetables.

1. In a slow cooker, pour vegetable oil.
2. In the “Baking” mode, first fry hard vegetables, such as onions, carrots, peppers.
3. Then you can add peas, corn, garlic and at the very end - tomatoes.
4. After 20 minutes of frying, pour in water so that it covers vegetables halfway.
5. Salt, pour the necessary spices. Put it out for 5 minutes.
6. Spread an even layer of rice. Pour boiling water so that the liquid level is one and a half centimeter above the cereal.
7. We turn on the "Buckwheat" or "Rice" mode and wait for the sound signal.

Garnish and main course in one pan

1. We clean the carcass of fish from scales and gills, gutting.
2. Sprinkle it with salt and black pepper, sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice, put several sprigs of parsley in the abdomen.
3. Fry the selected vegetables in a stewpan. It can be onions with carrots, celery and a clove of garlic.
4. Pour a glass of washed rice groats. Fry a couple of minutes.
5. Spread the fish on top. Pour water to cover the dish.
6. Reduce the fire to a minimum. Cooking rice with vegetables garnished with fish for about 20 minutes.

The same cooking principle applies to meat, such as chicken breast. First, fry the vegetables. For flavor, you can add wine. Then pour the cereal. Add chicken (chopped fillet) and tomato paste to the rice with vegetables. Mix. Pour boiling water and lower the lid. We wait 20-25 minutes. Turn off the fire, but lift the lid after another 10 minutes.