Seasoned Rice

 Belly Full on a Budget

Happy new year everyone, welcome to year 8 of Greedy girl cooks, has it really been that long? About two months ago I had asked on youtube suggestions of want to cook more of? Meat, specifically chicken dishes were the resounding top choice along with an interesting request to create affordable recipes. His exact words were “meals for college students”. If you ever been to college, you know how important every penny is when it comes to feeding yourself. I for one, lived on cup-o-noodles and easy mac, I gained the freshman 15 to prove it. Today’s recipe is a simple quick and flavorful dish that will have you fed for three days at least.

In this series of recipes, the meals are priced based on the quantity of the item used aka per serving. So for instance a bowl of cereal. The box of milk may cost $250 JMD and the cereal another $1000 per box. a box of milk has about 4 cups so that’s $62.50 per cup and the cereal has at least 10 servings in a box that’s $100 per serving so your bowl of cereal and milk costs you $162.50 per serving. That’s how these meals are calculated. So your up front cost at the grocery store will be higher because you cant exactly buy a tablespoon of sugar or a ¼ cup of milk. But the groceries should last, so you can make the recipes multiple times.

There are a few other things I did to keep the cost down, especially since I was trying to keep the rice as simple as possible. First hack is to dilute the coconut milk. As you may or may not know coconut milk can tend to get a bit pricy. You could but a fresh coconut and blend it yourself, but time is also money. So what I do is dilute coconut milk with water, not as strong coconut flavor but it’s still good, and the cold pressed coconut oil used in the cooking also pumps up the nutty flavor.

I used a homemade bouillon paste for this and priced it as such. However if you used any Maggie, knorr or grace seasoning cube the price would be even cheaper. I also recommend the grace noodle soup sachets, pumpkin or spicy cock soup. I just pour the water on it and strain away the noodles. I don’t use the noodles in the seasoned rice at all but I do like the flavor of it. Make sure to taste you liquid while cooking you want it to taste very seasoned and very flavorful because whatever it tastes like that’s what the rice will taste like.

I have made this rice several times, it is super flavorful, rice is perfectly cooked, the seasonings all shine through. I don’t feel the need to add any additional veggies or meat to it. However, you can do so, but it will affect the cost. the cheapest option would be to slice up a tin of jerk Vienna sausages and add that when you add the milk and water and let it cook with the rice that’s only an additional $128 per can. If the budget can stretch a bit more and you want a nicer sausage, go for some jerk bad dawg sausage cost  apx $103 per sausage link. Two links sliced up is all you would need, add the sausages to the dish when the coconut milk goes in. Not a fan of sausage? Grilled or seared boneless thighs add flavor and make it a complete meal as well. Season with some all-purpose seasoning and sear in the hot oil and roughly chop up before adding the veggies. Boneless thighs apx $114 per thigh are much cheaper than chicken breast which cost $275 per breast (boneless skinless). Get even more fancy with Grilled or seared shrimp: Season with salt black pepper and onion powder. Grill or sear in a hot pan until fully cooked 2-3 minutes per side, then set aside. 1 lb of shrimp is roughly $1400 once the shrimp is grilled and fully cooked add it to the top of the fluffed cook rice. If you add the shrimp to the liquid before the rice is cooked it would overcook, So make sure if adding shrimp serve it on top of the finished rice. I think the shrimp would take the dish a bit over the top but if the budget allows, it can work.

So make this recipe and let me know how it went. Tag me on Instagram or facebook, send me a dm, whatever method works best for you.

Ingredients  (printable recipe)

1 cup carrot
1 cup green sweet pepper
½ cup red pepper
1 cup onion
1 cup celery
6 garlic cloves
5 tablespoon coconut oil
2 cups basmati rice
3 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon bouillon paste

 

Instruction

• Finely chop all the veggies, carrots, sweet pepper, red pepper onion and celery
• Shred the garlic cloves
• Heat coconut oil in a pot and sauté the veggies
• Wash and drain the rice and add to the seasonings, stir to make sure all the rice is coated with fat
• add in the bouillon and sugar, stir
• add the coconut milk, water and garlic, allow the garlic to distribute, taste for salt if more is needed add it
• Reduce the flames to the lowest setting cover and allow it to steam cook for 30 minutes
• after 30 minutes fluff with a fork and serve. 

XOXO Greedygirl