Timetobeme's Blog

This is a dish I have made for a long time. We love Spanish rice and eat a lot of it. I used to make my rice, make my Sofrito , cook it up and then add the two together. Having a rice cooker changed everything !!! I found I could put all the ingredients in my rice cooker and make Spanish rice much easier.

Why would I call it plant based . I would imagine most Spanish rice is plant based ,but some people might add a broth or stock to it that is animal based. I never have, I just use water. I do keep veggie stock on hand, but prefer less salt so water works best for us. I also say fat free because you do not have to saute the veggies for the recipe.

So, I start by adding three cups of brown rice to my rice maker. I like to make a big batch to last a few days for our lunches and sometimes dinners.

Than I drain two cans of petite diced tomatoes, no added  salt , into a measuring cup and add the tomatoes to the pot. The one thing I forgot to take a picture of !!

I than add water to the measuring cup, using the juice from the tomatoes as part of the water in the recipe. I always pour water first into the cans also and then pour that into the measuring cup before I finish filling it with water, just to get the most tomato juice I can. I add a total of 6 cups of water to my 3 cups of brown rice.  I add one heaping tablespoon  of my homemade taco seasoning to one of the cups of water, usually the first tomato juice one and mix it well with a wisk. I use very little sodium so that is why I can call the recipe low sodium.

I then dice  up a bell pepper and an onion  , I usually dice them pretty small as we both like it better with smaller diced veggies.

Once everything is in the pot, I stir it well and turn it on.

A short while later, a wonderful and delicious rice that we love to have with refried beans.

I used some dehydrated refried beans I prepared , which I showed in my last post and since they were a bit thick I added a bit of hot water before I warmed them up.

Now, I wanted more fresh veggies so I cut up half each of a bell pepper, tomato , and onion and put them on top

Than I stirred it all together and had a wonderful and very filling lunch !!

Here is my recipe , you can cut it down , we just like a big pot of it !!

3 cups dry Brown rice, no particular kind, just whatever I have on hand at the time

2 cans petite diced low no salt added tomatoes

up to six cups water, I use the water from the tomatoes as part of my water for the recipe. You could use veggie broth if you wanted !!

one medium onion diced

one medium bell pepper diced

1 tablespoon taco seasoning

Sometimes I add fresh garlic, I didn’t this time, but if you want to, just add to taste. You could add garlic powder too, since I add it to my taco seasoning I do not add more.

DIRECTIONS

I first put the rice in the rice cooker.

I drain the tomato juice from the cans, just using the lids,  into the measuring cup and then add water to fill the measuring cup . I used a two cup measuring cup  and fill it three times. Two cups for every cup of brown rice.

I add water to the tomato juice to make my first two cups, then I add a heaping tablespoon of taco seasoning and mix it well with a wisk. You can add more or less to taste

I add it to the rice and then add the other two 2 cup measuring cups of water  to the pot.

I dice up the bell pepper and the onion and add them to the pot. I stir them and turn on the crock pot and set it to brown rice.

That is it, very quick and easy. It takes longer for the rice cooker to cook it than to add all the ingredients.

You can use it as a side dish ,  or add other things to it like corn, or black beans, or refried beans to make a meal of out it. That is what we do.

I will be posting my taco seasoning recipe and picture tutorial in the next week, I need to make more so I figured I would share with you !!!

I know the pictures are a bit yellow .  I plan to have my husband change out the old bulbs in our kitchen light with the bright white ones. It will help a lot.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie