Sweet Curried Rice with Carrots and Chick Peas

We're safely back in the Cleve just in time for this winter's first big snowstorm, but I wanted to share with you the last of Lindsay S. Nixon's recipes that I adapted over the holiday.

This dish came about as I was trying to use up the last of the ingredients that I had purchased while staying in the condo--dates, chick peas, carrots, onion and brown rice. The inspiration came from Lindsay's recipe in Everyday Happy Herbivore called "Curried Rice," but I took it to a whole new level and again, everyone who tried it loved it. This unusual rice dish would be great served with a big salad to complete a meal.

Sweet Curried Rice with Carrots and Chick Peas

serves a crowd

Printable Recipe

3 cups brown rice

6 cups low sodium vegetable broth, plus more for sauteing

3 Tbsp mild/sweet curry powder

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 ½ tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp paprika

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 large yellow onion, medium chop

1 ½ cups carrot, medium chop

¾ cup pitted, chopped dates, or less, depending upon how sweet you want this

1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

Juice of ½ of a large lemon

Salt, to taste, or not

Place brown rice through cinnamon into a rice cooker or pot. If using a rice cooker, turn cooker on and let rice cook. If using the stove top method, bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is cooked, 35-45 minutes.

While rice is cooking, chop onion and carrot. Place a skillet over medium high heat and coat the bottom of the skillet with vegetable broth. When broth is bubbling, add onion and stir. Cook for 5 minutes. Add carrot and stir. Cook carrots and onions, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and begin to turn brown. You will need to lower heat to prevent burning as the onions and carrots cook. Add dates and stir.

Once rice is done cooking, stir in carrot/onion mixture, garbanzo beans and lemon juice. Taste. Season with salt, or not.

I also want to share with you some big news. My thoughts on what to think about when you want to eat something were featured in an article in Cleveland's Plain Dealer. It was a big surprise to me, so thank you to PD writer Evelyn Theiss for mentioning this important idea. You can check that out here if you've got a moment. My quotes are at the end of the article.

And in other big news, I used my pressure cooker to make something other than beans for dinner tonight! I made this soup recipe from Lani Muelrath. I altered the seasoning a lot for my palate (I like things highly seasoned). I'm slowly working into a more comfortable relationship with the appliance and I'm going to start making recipes from Lorna J. Sass' Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure and see how it goes. Wish me luck.

A votre sante!