I recently learned that this family recipe came from my “one of a kind grandma”, who was married for a time to my Grandpa Joe Gutierrez from Mexico. My mom, Gerry, used to make it all the time until Near East rice pilaf won her over with its ease of use.

I’m so glad I was able to dig up this recipe and share it with her again after so many years. It has a lovely roasted flavor, without saffron or the bright yellow color you might expect, instead, it gets its depth from browning the rice, scallions and chicken broth.

It’s nice to return to a homemade version that isn’t overloaded with sodium, even if it’s not the quickest recipe or a current favorite with my kids. Still, it deserves a home here under Family Traditions, where it can live on for the next generation.

Grandma Joyce’s Mexican Rice Recipe

¼ cup oil (olive recommended)

¼ cup onion

1 cup rice, rinsed and drained (white long grain recommended)

3 cloves garlic

1 plum tomato (optional), chopped and de-seeded

2 cups chicken broth (or water + 2 cubes bouillon)— if don’t have, salted water will suffice

½ tsp cumin (optional)

Directions:

Step 1:

Boil 2 cups water + bouillon or 2 cups canned chicken broth while you do step 2:

Step 2:

Heat ¼ cup oil in medium size saucepan or pot on med/high heat.

Add rice and brown, then

Add onion and brown, then

Add garlic and brown, then,

Add tomato and brown

Step 3:

Add the broth/bouillon mixture to the rice mixture. Maintain heat at med/high until it boils, add cumin, and then turn heat to low and simmer for 17 minute or until rice has absorbed water.

I was fortunate enough to get the last can of garbanzos during my online grocery order before they went out of stock along with cauliflower, TP and just about everything else that you normally take for granted (until a pandemic hits). This covid19 is really challenging our cooking and shopping habits so I need to plan a few weeks out to ensure I can satisfy the requirements for a given recipe.

I love this recipe for its wholesomeness and simplicity- it’s vegan, delish, cheap and easy to make:

• Ingredients are pretty easy to find (and store) since most of the ingredients are pretty much shelf stable with the exception of the spinach and fresh tomato.
• Bread crumbs offer a great alternative to the authentic recipe with fried bread*

Other observations:

• The curry was a really nice addition. Don’t skip it!
• I didn’t try the fried egg and toast with it yet but intend to when I eat the leftovers for lunch.

*Feel free to venture online and try out different variants- I tried a few other recipes but they required frying bread and then and grinding it up. So I decided to search “espinacas and garbanzos and bread crumbs” and voilá! this recipe appeared.

This recipe was inspired by an old favorite my mom made from the (flashback!) Joy of Cooking. There are similar versions posted on Allrecipes in which your roast the cauliflower exclusively but I have developed a shortcut to speed up the cooking for weeknights.

My kids devour this so it’s on our regular rotation in the winter. It goes well with almost anything like chicken, salmon…

Requires: pressure cooker and top broiling oven

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower
• Mayo
• Seasoning salt (or some other spices like garlic salt and paprika)
• Dijon mustard
• Shredded Cheese

Steps:

Steam cauliflower

• Rinse cauliflower and cut into a few pieces to speed up steaming

• Cook in high pressure 10-15 min in instant pot on trivet with a cup of water (depends on amount you put in, cook til a fork goes in smoothly but doesn’t fall apart)

• Quick release

Add cheese topping

• Mix up a half cup mayo, seasoning salt and a squeeze of digno mustard in a small bowl. Add a cup of cheese (cheddar or combo of cheddar and fresh parm is good) and mix it in.
• Place cooked cauliflower in a casserole dish and cover it with the cheese mixture
• Place in oven and broil (need a top broiler) on 450-500 for 5 min til cheese melts and browns slightly. Keep close eye or it will catch on fire!!
• Cool a bit and serve

These purple pickled onions make a great topping for carnitas or cochinita pibil. The color is magnificent and the tangy flavor, along with some cilantro as well really compliments the warmth of the chile and cinnamon. While its not the easiest to incorporate into a rushed weekday meal prep, it is so worth it. I usually find it’s easier to make the quick pickle in a week when I am using my frozen leftovers and have relatively little prep to do for the meat.

water, 1/3 vinegar to water ratio, enough to cover the onion slices, salt and a little sugar, heat to a light boil, and probably less than a minute, take off the heat and throw the whole thing in the fridge (I put a towel under the pot so it doesn’t melt the fridge).

Here is a recipe you can also reference