Rice With Roasted Red and Yellow Peppers, and Red Onions

This recipe is a newcomer to our family – and we love it. I got it from my friend Sara – one of many wonderful recipes that she has shared with me in the last few years.

It is delicious, and very colorful.

Sometimes I add some wild rice to the dish – the wild rice has to be cooked separately from the white rice because it has a much longer cooking time – With its lovely, chewy texture, and it’s contrasting black color, it is a perfect addition to regular white rice.

This dish can be made only with white rice, or with a combination of the two, as you like.

It is actually a very simple recipe – so don’t be afraid by the long list of instructions.

Ingredients:

For the white rice:

• 2 cups white rice
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the roasted peppers, and onions:

• 3 sweet red peppers
• 3 sweet yellow peppers
• 1 large red onion
• some olive oil
• coarse salt to sprinkle on the peppers and onions in oven

For the wild rice (optional)

• 2/3 cup uncooked black wild rice
• 2 1/2  cups water
• 1  teaspoon of salt

Preparation:

For the peppers and onions:

1. Several hours before serving, cut the red onion and the red and yellow peppers into little cubes – about 1 cm (half an inch) big
2. Spread evenly on large baking tin, lined with parchment paper, or silicone liner
3. Sprinkle olive oil on all the cubed onions and peppers
4. Sprinkle coarse salt on all the cubed onions and peppers
5. Bake in low-medium oven (140 C or about 300 F) for up to two hours; do not burn.
   • The peppers and onions should become soft, and the natural sweetness should come out. The edges may be a bit brown, but they should keep their color throughout the baking.
6. Put aside till rice is prepared.

For the white rice:

1. In strainer, rinse the rice till all the starch is washed away.
2. Allow to dry completely in strainer.
3. In small-medium non-stick pot with good cover, put the Tablespoon of canola oil and heat for a moment.
4. Add the washed and strained white rice, and mix with oil in pot.
5. Add 2 1/2 cups boiling water
6. Add teaspoon salt
7. I always put a clean tea towel on the cover of the pot – I place the tea towel on the table, put the cover on the towel, and tie it, so that no loose  towel edges accidentally touches the flame. You can skip this step if you like – I do it because it absorbs some of the moisture and steam from the cooking rice. If you decide to do this, please be careful to tie the towel firmly on the cover of the pot. 

8.  Bring to boil, lower flame to small flame, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes. Turn off the flame and let stand for a bit.

For the wild rice:

1. In strainer, wash the wild rice and let stand for a while in strainer, to remove all the excess water.
2. In small nonstick pot with cover, put the 2/3 cup wild rice, 2 1/2 cups water, and teaspoon salt.
3. Bring to boil, and then lower flame to low flame, and cook about 40 minutes.

Putting everything together:

1. Fluff the cooked white rice with fork.
2. If using wild rice, mix cooked wild rice into the white rice.
3. Add most of the roasted peppers and onions and mix. Save some of it to sprinkle on top of the rice
4. Taste rice and adjust seasoning.
5. If you like, you can sprinkle black pepper on top

TIP: For those of you cooking in the U.S., I remember using Texmati rice; it was excellent – please don’t use parboiled rice for this recipe (or, in my opinion, for any recipe).