Apple Pine Nut Rice Pilaf
I've had delicious vegetarian rice pilaf dishes before, but I am always annoyed that they are made with white rice and seasoned heavily with oil. My version uses healthier brown or wild rice and its flavor comes from its delicious, healthy ingredients - not from heaps of oil!
The combination of nuts and grains provides complete vegetarian protein. Skim through the tips below for ideas to add more protein to your pilaf.
This is a great dish to share if you are dining with non-veg friends. You can serve this to them as a side dish or let them add chicken to their own portions. This is also a great dish to bring along for picnics or potlucks.
Prep time: 15 min; Total time: 25 min
Ingredients
- 1 c. wild rice, brown rice, or basmati rice
- 1/2 c. pine nuts (pignoles), toasted
- 1/2 c. Vidalia onion, diced (optional)
- 1 apple, diced (I used red delicious but this would taste great with fiji, granny smith, just about anything)
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
- 1/2 c. raisins or diced red grapes (optional)
- 3 ribs celery, diced
- 1 tbsp. (or less) extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. shoyu/soy sauce or tamari (or to taste)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
First, begin cooking your rice. I used a pressure cooker to cook 1 c. brown basmati rice in 20 minutes. If you do not have a pressure cooker, use a rice cooker or a covered saucepan - you'll probably need to cook it for longer than 20 minutes then.
Next, if you are adding onion, begin to saute it in a cast iron pan with a little bit of olive oil.
Dice the apple and toss it in a bowl with lemon juice. Add celery, raisins or grapes. When the onion is translucent, add that too.
Toast the pine nuts (or any other nuts or seeds you are including) over a medium heat for 5-8 minutes either on the stovetop or in the oven at 325 F on a cookie sheet. Stir the nuts at least twice as they toast to prevent them from burning. Once nuts or seeds begin to give off a nutty flavor, add them to the bowl with the apples.
When the rice is ready, add it to the bowl with the apples. Add salt, pepper, and shoyu or tamari. If you did not use extra virgin olive oil to saute your onion, add that too. Mix well.
Serve chilled.
Tips
You can season this easy vegetarian rice pilaf with just about anything you've
got in your kitchen - Bragg's liquid aminos, tomato juice, cumin, or raw apple cider vinegar, for
example. For an Asian flavor, use toasted sesame oil and/or rice vinegar instead of olive oil and
mix in some sesame seeds too.
To add protein, toss in your favorite kind of beans. I imagine it would taste good with black beans, lima beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, and great northern beans... but if it were up to me, I would add edamame.
Don't have pine nuts on hand? Use any nuts - walnuts would be my first choice but pecans, cashews, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, or pistacchios would all taste nice.
If you don't have a Vidalia onion on hand, no worries. Any onion or shallot will do the job. I made this without any onion at all and it was still delicious.
To completely change up the flavor, try omitting apples, pine nuts, and raisins and adding corn, dried cranberries, and edamame instead. Another idea is pine nuts, diced olives, and capers.
If you wish, mix in diced, steamed tempeh or seasoned, cooked seitan. If you've got some well-seasoned tofu, you can crumble that up and toss it in too.
Looking for uses for your leftovers? Add it to a burrito or a wrap.
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