Cheap eats: Rice with peas and 20 grams of protein

Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 6 cups of food: protein, veg, and flavor

Plus: One Pot, Microwave option for ease and to reduce home cooling costs in these 100 degree temps.

The curry slightly yellows the rice. There are whole and broken cashews, peas, and carrots. Egads! I forgot the pepper. No biggie. This base recipe is very adaptable.

1 cup rice

1 cup of peas

UP to 1 TSP Salt, read notes before adding salt

1 carrot, chopped or about 1/2 cup of veg

about 1/4 cup cashews (optional)

1 TSP unsalted curry powder*

1 cinnamon stick* 

4 whole Cloves*

4 Cardamom pods*

1/4 TSP ground Black Pepper

3 cups of water, tap cold

*these are my choice of spices for an Indian version. Choose complimentary spices from your spice collection.

Rice is the base for this meal. The dish has, at a minimum, 8 grams of protein from the peas, another 5 grams (cashews) if you have some nuts to add in. The carrot is about half a gram of protein. There are 13 grams of protein for one cup of dry rice. That's over 20 grams of protein in the dish just based on the veg and rice. 

The nice thing about this one pot dish is that it yields about 6 cups of food and it's very flexible about the seasonings and veg you can add. It makes two main dishes of 3 cups each or can be divided to serve 4-6 people as a one cup side.

This is one of my reverse meal plan dishes. I start with ingredients I have on hand and make the dish. No shopping, no special trip to the store. I was checking my inventory prior to a grocery order and saw a mostly empty container of cashews and decided to use them. If you don't have nuts, the recipe works fine without them. 

I make this in the microwave but you can do it stove top or covered in the oven, except the last 5 minutes when it is uncovered. Stir occasionally if not microwaved. Cooking this stove top will give you more flexibility if you opt to use bone broth to bump up the protein factor. I default to a medium strength (1000 watt) microwave in this heat wave to save on home cooling costs and the simple ease.

Let's start with 

1 cup of rice $0.25-0.50 per cup based on the size bag you purchase

1 cup of peas $0.43/cup 

Up to 1 tsp of salt. Read through the recipe first because you may need to save the salt for after the dish cooks.

Next, select some veg you have in either can, frozen, or fresh. Drain off any liquid or save it and replace some of the water the recipe calls for before cooking. If you use the liquid it probably has salt added so reduce that salt or add salt after it cooks. If using frozen just rinse off any frost. 

I had a carrot so I chopped that up. 0.10-0.25 each

Your goal is to have about 1/2 cup of veg in addition to the 1 cup of peas.

Then I added a palmful (about 1/4 cup) of unsalted cashews I had left over. This is optional but a great way to use up some nuts you may have. Opt for unsalted or you'll need to delay adding salt until after cooking. Yes, you can rinse a lot of the added salt off nuts. Just pat dry afterwards.

This dish is a good way to use up leftover veg but soft veg will break down more easily with the long cook time. Corn kernels, peas, edamame, green beans, harder, firmer veg works well in this. Zucchini is right out unless served as a side. Wet veg, the veg that easily turns mushy should be avoided. You can always serve this rice dish as a base for other veg or as a side. In the past I have added dried golden raisins, currants, chopped figs, and cranberries when I had small amounts to use up. 1/4 to 1/8 cup of the fruit seemed to be the right balance. Aim for complimentary flavors.

Next, select the seasoning you want. I opted for an Indian style rice.

I added 

1 TSP unsalted curry powder

1 cinnamon stick 

4 whole Cloves

4 Cardamom pods

1/4 TSP ground Black Pepper

Don't have these spices? Consider an Italian blend, a French blend, or Creole blend of spices. If you use whole spices like mine, count them. At the end, I remove the cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom seeds. You can use powdered spices but go easy, maybe a 1/4 TSP max of each. Check your spices for added salt and save the added salt until you taste it after microwaving.

In the past I have added mustard seeds, curry leaves, single chilis, even whole allspice. Some spices are edible but some should be removed if stems or shells are attached like the whole cloves and cardamom pods.

Finally, add 3 cups water. If you reserved some liquid from canned veg, measure and add enough water to equal 3 cups of liquid. A bone broth or veg broth is fine but I find it easier to monitor on the stove as the fat affects the way it cooks in the microwave.

For my preferred rice I used 1 cup of rice and 3 cups of cold water, 1 cup of peas and up to 1/2 cup of other veg. plus seasoning. Rinsing the rice first will remove some of the starch but really isn't necessary for the microwave dish. I cook it uncovered for 18-20 minutes on regular in my medium size 1000 watt M/W. Brown rice takes longer and I prefer to cook it stove top so I can better monitor the progress. 

In the past I have added toasted pecans at the end, nicely chopped as a topping. This worked well mixing a cup of brown rice with water or broth (or bouillon cube). My Thanksgiving go-to rice uses a brown rice, salt, pepper, celery, peas, carrots, green bell pepper, and is topped with toasted pecans.

A tasty option for the basic rice dish involves roasting carrots half way in the oven then using the oil they cook in as a base for adding rice and other veg and seasoning. Cook covered about 15 minutes, then remove the top or foil. Stir well and cook another 5 minutes or so, being careful not to dry out the dish too much. This final 5 minutes allows excess liquid to cook off and gives the rice time to finish cooking. 

**************************************************

**parboiled rice generally requires more water so watch that last few minutes when cooking and add water if needed.

***This is my favorite basmati rice. Currently twice the price of most but so tasty and fragrant. The disgusting Trump tariffs may increase the price by 50%. What a bastard!

****I was introduced to microwaving rice over 30 years ago. Thanks, Markus W.! The formula is 1 cup dry rice and 3 cups tap cold water. 18-20 minutes in the microwave on the default power setting. Voila! Easy peasy. Don't let a company fool you into thinking that you need one of their microwavable rice pouches or any special kind of rice. Regular rice will do. Questions? Check the package or google microwave instructions for your brand or type of rice. A lot of us are willing to experiment in the kitchen and post the results.