I had a friend who years ago had embraced minimalism. She had just cleared out her kitchen of things she felt she didn’t need. As we were discussing how people had a lot of extra appliances in their kitchen that they probably didn’t need, or discussion turned to the rice cooker. My friend wondered why anyone had a rice cooker when it was just so easy to make on the stove.
“um…I have a rice cooker.” I said.
We had a good laugh, and I explained that while it probably is a super easy dish to make on the stove for many people, for some reason I just couldn’t get it right. I have failed in making one of the most basic dishes. Sure I can make homemade bread and roasts and the perfect chocolate chip cookie, but ask me to make rice on the stove and I start to panic a little. My rice cooker saved my family from eating mushy rice time and time again.
Of course, it could be that for the first 26 years of my life I avoided rice. I had this one bad experience as a 6 year old of not liking rice, having to eat it for dinner anyways, and consequently getting sick afterwards. I mean, it probably wasn’t even the rice that made me sick, but it didn’t matter. I swore it off for the next 20 years.
Imagine my shock when I tried it again as an adult and fell in love with the dish. My poor mother – she avoided making that frugal dish for the rest of my childhood to save me the trauma (or maybe to avoid the dinner wars – moms, you know what I’m talking about!) and now here I was eating it willingly. Sorry, mom.
Anyways, we all know that on the list of frugal foods, rice is pretty much sitting near the top of the list, if not the very top. We eat it often around here. This Cilantro Lime Rice is a perfect side dish for a variety of meals. Tonight we paired it with some pork souvlaki (bought on sale of course) and a ceasar salad. Don’t judge me because there is no bacon in the salad. We ran out. And when you live in the country you don’t drive to town JUST for bacon. I mean, I know if there was anything to drive there for, it WOULD be bacon. Or chocolate. I think it’s a tie between bacon and chocolate. But we decided it might be poor use of gas and that we should wait till grocery shopping day. So baconless salad it was.
I like to top this cilantro lime rice off with a little bit of soy sauce.
You could also alter this recipe a bit depending on your preferences. You could cook the rice in coconut milk instead of water to give it that coconut-y flavour. You could also use brown rice for a healthier dish. Because you are mixing the ingredients in AFTER you cook the rice,you could really use any rice your heart desires.
Just don’t ask me how to make this dish on the stove. We all know how that would end.
Enjoy your cilantro lime rice!
Cilantro Lime Rice
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups long Grain White Rice
- 1 tbsp canola oil (or whatever oil you prefer)
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 Clove garlic, minced
- 5 Tbsp lime juice
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Pour 3 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups of rice into rice cooker. Cook as per your rice cooker's instructions.
- While the rice is cooking, saute the onions in the oil on medium heat until translucent. Add the minced garlic and saute for another two minutes, carefully watching so the garlic doesn't burn. Set aside.
- When rice is done cooking, stir in the cooked garlic and onions. Add the lime juice and the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.
