The theme this 16th week of Tessa Kiros' recipes at I Heart Cooking Club is "Rice is Nice." More precisely, this is what was on the IHCC site for the week: "Rice is versatile. There are many different kinds of rice to choose from. Different colors, textures, sizes, and tastes. A rice for everyone."
Matt and I love rice, Mark not so much. He doesn't hate it, and he will eat it, but he would rather have a potato or pasta than rice, so most of the time rice around here is something I make small amounts of and eat myself these days with Matt off at college. That said, I made this rice to accompany another recipe of Tessa's and Mark ate it happily and took leftovers of the meal for lunch the next day, so maybe rice like this has more of a future here than I thought. Maybe rice here needs to be bolder with more flavors incorporated to be truly appreciated. Whenever I make rice to accompany something at dinner, I just usually use straight rice (different kinds but usually don't mix things into it except for special recipes that call for it). This recipe was really nice with the scallions, spinach, dill, and lemon...it brought a lot of flavor to the overall dish. Delicious, and so easy to make. Definitely repeat-worthy, even for Mark.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2.5 pounds of spinach, rinsed and drained
4 Tablespoons olive oil
3.5 ounces green onions with some green, chopped
3 Tablespoons chopped dill
1 cup medium-grain rice
salt
juice of 1 small lemon
freshly ground black pepper
1 T. chopped mint
Coarsely chop the spinach leaves. Heat the olive oil in a very large pot and saute the onions until pale gold and softened. Add the dill and saute for 30 seconds or so, then stir in the rice.
Now add the spinach. You might feel that it won't all fit in the pot, but fit in as much as you can. Add 2 cups of hot water and press down and turn the spinach until it begins to wilt and it's all in. Add a good amount of salt, turn the spinach over with a wooden spoon and put the lid on.
Bring to a boil then turn through again. Lower the heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes. If there is still water in the bottom of the pot toward the end of this time, take the lid off and turn up the heat to let it evaporate. Remove from the heat.
Sprinkle in the lemon juice and add a few grinds of pepper. Turn through gently and taste for salt. Add the mint.
Cover with a clean dish cloth, put the lid back on and leave for 10 minutes to steam. Serve hot or even at room temperature.
