A delicious, refreshing side dish which is a great accompaniment with most meals! This Lemon Nice Rice pairs particularly well with Mediterranean style meals.
Inspired by the Greek lemon rice pilaf, this recipe takes plain basmati rice and enhances it with a few simple ingredients .
As with most of my recipes, this dish came together quite accidentally, when I was just trying to make plain rice a bit more exciting. It’s very simple to make and is also very easily adjusted and varied depending on what you would like to add. Maybe try adding some sautéed onion and garlic, or some peas for colour, some fresh parsley for garnishing, or some olives for an extra Mediterranean feel!

Lemon Nice Rice

Serves 6 as a side dish

3 tbsp olive oil, split
1 mug rice (ca. 300g)
2 cup vegetable stock
1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 lemons, juice
Zest of one lemon

Method

1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan. Add rice and toss to coat the rice in oil. Add stock, oregano and lemon juice. Bring to boil, then reduce temperature and simmer for approx. 10 min until the rice is cooked but not mushy and all liquid is absorbed. Add more liquid as needed.
2. Drizzle in the final 1 tbsp olive oil and half of the lemon zest. Stir it all together and add more lemon zest depending on how intense you want the flavour to be. Serve warm or cold.

Notes/tips:

– Ideally you should always try to rinse your rice two or three times before you cook with it. This gets rid of any excess starch which is particularly important with basmati rice, which has a high starch content. Getting rid of excess starch will ensure that your rice isn’t too sticky and don’t just turn to mush, but instead holds its shape during cooking.
– You could also finely dice half an onion and sauté it in the olive oil at the very beginning for a couple of minutes before adding the rice.
– This rice with some peas mixed in would also be delicious served cold, maybe for a summer picnic or barbecue.