By Katie Mae Stanley, Contributing Writer This pilaf’s flavor comes from sautéing the onions and garlic in delicious grass fed butter and roasting the almonds and rice with the vegetables until they have a soft golden color. Roasting pulls out the flavors and ensures that the rice won’t clump together as easily because the individual grains are coated in butter. If you are worried about the use of white rice in this recipe consider reading Kimi’s article on why they eat white rice.
Simple and wholesome, rice pilaf makes a wonderful addition to almost any meal. I remember being giddy each time my mom said we could have rice pilaf for dinner. It was my favorite despite the fact that it came from a box. There is no wrong way to make pilaf. All around the world there are different variations of this simple and tasty side. The origin of our word pilaf is derived from the Modern Greek pilafi, which comes from the Turkish pilav, Persian pilāw, Hindi pulāv, Sanskrit pulāka and possibly Dravidian origin. Aren’t languages intriguing? I also love how cuisines borrow from each other and slowly form thier own unique takes on food! That’s why you will see dishes of simlar styles like my Green Pea Pulao from Malaysia or my Arabic Rice from Israel.
I make my rice in a rice cooker to save on space and time but this can easily be made on the stove. My favorite rice cooker is the Vitaclay rice/slow cooker. #affiliatelink It doubles as a rice and slow cooker. It is preprogrammed to keep your food hot for up to 12 hours! Sometimes when I know I am going to be out or busy most of the day I will put my rice in the Vitaclay and a meat in my crock pot so that I have a meal ready to go that evening! (Read Kimi’s review of it here)
Simple and Tasty Crock Pot Meals and Recipes:
- Crockpot Chicken and Quinoa from The Nourishing Gourmet
- Chicken Teryiaki from Nourishing Simplicity
- Nourishing Crockpot Carnival from Passionate Homemaking
- Roasted Garlic Chicken from Just Making Noise
- Spicy Mango-Ginger Beef Roast from Just Making Noise
- Butter Chicken from Stacy Makes Cents
- Slow Cooker Pumpkin Puree from The Nourishing Gourmet
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups white rice
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 tsp real sea salt
- In a medium sized pot heat the butter over medium heat until melted. Add the onions and celery, sprinkle with salt and saute until almost translucent.
- Add the rice and almonds, stir until slightly browned. At this point you can transfer the rice mixture to a rice cooker or leave the rice in the pot.
- Stir in the broth. If you are are cooking the rice on the stove top bring the rice to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. If you are using a rice cooker follow the directions that came with your model. I have this rice cooker.
- Uncover and fluff with a fork or rice paddle before serving.
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This really was delicious. Because I already had some leftover brown rice cooked in chicken broth, I simply sautéed the onion and celery along with some sliced mushrooms and added it to the rice being heated in a pan with butter. Added soaked, dried, lightly crushed almonds (place in zip lock bag and smash). A sort of fried rice pilaf.
Just made this for dinner tonight! It is delicious!