Homestyle Brown Rice Pilaf

Brown rice loaded with vegetables and garbanzo beans!

This was another recipe I found on allrecipes. I selected it since it seemed it would go well with some salmon and rice pilafs are always nice and I've never done a pilaf before. Ever. As far as I can recall.

While it is a busy recipe, it's not over the top with crazy ingredients, time or effort. Practicing some mise en place served me well, which is another convenience of this recipe: there is a 25 minute lapse between when the rice is put on the stove and everything else has to happen -- the perfect amount of time to prep. Depending on how quick you are with prepping during those 25 minutes, you may be able to sit down and enjoy a smoke, as I did.

The slight changes I made were to increase chickpeas from 1 cup to a full 14.5 oz can and replace cashews with pine nuts.

Home-Style Brown Rice Pilaf

1 1/2 c water

1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c uncooked brown rice

3 tbsp butter
1 1/2 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
2 c fresh sliced mushrooms
1 c chickpeas
2 eggs, beaten
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c chopped pine nuts

Bring 1-1/2 cups water to boil, add rice. Bring contents back to a boil, cover the pot and simmer for 45-50 minutes, or until rice is tender.

Approximately 20 minutes before rice is finished cooking heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

Stir in onions and saute them, stirring frequently until they soften.


Add the garlic and carrots and continue stirring for 5 minutes.

Add mushrooms to skillet and cook until mushrooms begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the chickpeas and cook 1 more minute.


When the rice is finished cooking pour the eggs into the skillet and cook the mixture, stirring constantly until the eggs are cooked.


Remove the skillet from the heat, stir in pepper, parsley, and nuts.

Spoon the cooked rice into the skillet and stir well.

Serve the pilaf hot.


If you don't goof around during those 25 minutes I talked about earlier, this recipe will go off without any hitch whatsoever and will be ready in just less than an hour. If you do goof around, I can see how some things (like carrots and mushrooms and even the rice) could get all mushy and crappy and it will take forever to make. Don't mess around.

If you heed the recipe's direction as I did, it will turn out FABULOUSLY! Rodney and I enjoyed this recipe, myself more than Rodney, which I found surprising. Rodney found it a little "too earthy." While not a flavor explosion in and of itself, it is a very good go-to when you need a complimentary, rather than starring, dish. Overall, it went over well. And it did go well with salmon. More on that salmon later.

Cost:

• rice: ~$1
• mushrooms: $0.99
• chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans): $1
• parsley: $0.50

Total: $3.50. Let's round that up to $4 to include eggs and butter and all that other stuff. We got 5-6 servings of this which brings each serving to $0.67-0.80.  Get that?  It's 75 cents a serving!

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