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Base Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Jasmine or Calrose rice, rinsed well
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ medium onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño or serrano pepper, finely diced (optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups vegetable broth
Tomato & Spice Blend Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand or blended
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pinch cinnamon
Finishing Touches Ingredients
- ½ teaspoon Mexican oregano (or regular oregano)
- Juice of ½ a lime
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a deep skillet or saucepan over medium heat.
- Add rinsed rice and toast for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden.
- Push rice to the side, then add onions and jalapeño. Sauté for 2-3 minutes until soft.
- Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Mix in tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes to enhance flavor.
- Stir in crushed San Marzano tomatoes, sugar, and all the spices. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add vegetable broth, stir, and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 18-20 minutes (Jasmine rice) or 22-25 minutes (Calrose rice).
- Turn off heat and let rice sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork and stir in oregano, lime juice, cilantro, and peas/carrots if using.
- Serve warm, garnished with extra cilantro and lime wedges.
Why Toast the Rice? Toasting enhances flavor and keeps the grains separate.
Why Cook the Tomatoes First? Cooking off excess moisture concentrates the flavor.
Why the Cinnamon? A tiny pinch rounds out the spices without making it sweet.
Equipment
What each of these actually changes about the result. Links go to Amazon and earn this site a commission at no cost to you — more on that here.
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Holds enough heat that adding a cold steak barely drops the surface temperature, so you get a crust instead of grey steamed meat. This is the pan the reverse sear is built around.
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Rinsing rice until the water runs clear washes off surface starch, which is the difference between separate grains and a sticky clump. A colander's holes are too big to hold rice.
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Still the right tool for small volumes of liquid and spice, where a 1 g scale rounds badly. Get a stainless set with the markings stamped in, not printed — printed ones wash off.