Broccoli Rice and Being a Veg Ninja

Allow me to share with you one of those favourite family dishes. You know you have them in repertoire. There are the something really fast that you can get dinner going in 15 minutes and there are the really easy recipes that makes you look like a good parent for feeding your kids well. Because we, the adults, are fairly fussy, we also make sure that the stuff we make we want to eat too.

So I went over to my sister-in-law’s for lunch one day and she served up roast chicken. The chicken was really flavourful and tender and amazing and I ask her how she did it. She said she just bought the pre-marinated chicken from the supermarket. I never actually considered this! I had peri-peri chicken before but being a sucker that I am, I made it from scratch using this recipe. And it was great. But it was time consuming. So one day I thought I might try the pre-marinated peri-peri chicken from Aldi and I never looked back. They are butterflied and cook much faster than a normal roast. We get one of these chickens once every couple of months.

The next part, of course, is what to eat with it. I looked up a few Portugese recipes (working with what I had in the fridge/pantry) I found this recipe for broccoli rice (arroz con brocoli) which is basically rice cooked with broccoli, garlic and olive oil so I decide to ‘veg ninja’ it into a side dish with lots of vegetables. The concept of ‘veg ninja’ has been brought to my attention by a fellow parent on Instagram and it’s basically when you try to shove in as much vegetables into a traditional dish that does not have vegetables in it (think putting peas into spaghetti alla carbonara, cabbage into tom kha gai and having more veggies in fried rice than the actual rice) in order to make your kids eat vegetables. Well, this is one of those recipes and I love it.

Do you have a veg ninja trick? Please share!

Broccoli Rice2015-04-05 22:56:54 Serves 4Write a review PrintPrep Time10 minCook Time10 minTotal Time20 minPrep Time10 minCook Time10 minTotal Time20 minIngredients

1. 2 cups cooked long grain rice
2. 3 cloves garlic, chopped
3. 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4. 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
5. 1/2 red capsicum, diced
6. 1 small zucchini, diced
7. 1 onion, diced
8. 1 tomato, diced
9. 4 tbsp juice & fat from the roast chicken (or substitute with some concentrated chicken stock – adjust amount accordingly when using chicken stock)

Instructions

1. Steam or microwave the broccoli florents with a bit of water until slightly soft but not yet fully cooked – around 2 minutes on High.
2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan on high. Fry garlic for a minute until softened but not coloured. Turn the heat down to medium.
3. Add broccoli florets, red capsicum, onion and zucchini. Fry for a few minutes until they begin to soften. Add splashes of water if required to keep the vegetables from cooking unevenly.
4. Add rice and fry until everything comes together and the vegetables are cooked.
5. Add tomato and chicken juices/stock and fry until the tomato begins to soften and fall apart. Ensure there is enough liquid so this doesn’t turn into a fried rice.
6. Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a lid or foil and let the rice sit for about ten minutes.

Serve with

1. – Peri peri roast chicken or any other roasts
2. – Any meat really
3. – Try covering it with cheese and bake (I haven’t tried it but I am thinking it might be a good idea!)

Adapted from Traditional Portuguese arroz con brócoli recipesAdapted from Traditional Portuguese arroz con brócoli recipesSpatula, Spoon and Saturday /