Chili Lime Brown Rice Bowl, + perfect brown rice! (vegan + gluten free)

 

I am trying a new way of eating recently. I'm trying to stick primarily to whole foods, and also eating mass amounts of fruits every day (like an 8 banana and 5 dates smoothie for breakfast!). I'm sticking to raw foods until dinner each day as well, and then having a nice high carb dinner each night. This week's creation was this tasty Chili Lime Rice bowl! A friend of mine recently gave me a bunch of organic rice, and I just used other things I happened to have in my fridge to throw this easy dinner together. 

A while ago I was telling one of my coworkers how I have never been able to get my rice to turn out right. It was always either too watery and mushy, or too little water and crunchy. I could never seem to get the amount of water right. Then my coworker told me this trick that he uses, and his rice always turns out perfect. White or brown rice. I have only tried it with brown rice thus far, but he said he usually make white rice so it should work with that too. All you do is rinse your rice first, then when you put it in the pot and fill it with water, you just fill it to about 2 centimeters above the rice. He showed me as the length of the tip of his finger to the first knuckle, but my hands are bigger than his so I couldn't just go by the "one knuckle" measurement. It looked like he was showing about 2 centimeters though, and when I tried that it turned out perfectly. This is a trick I'll be using for every rice dish from now on!

I made this late one night, so the photos are a bit darker than usual. Also, I was using my cute "Namast'ay in bed" wine glass to drink my berry tea kombucha. Here is my chopped up cilantro and big o'e pile of garlic.

 Saute the onions and garlic while the rice is cooking to speed things up a little.

 Once the rice is done, it can be added to the onions and garlic, and toss in the fresh chopped cilantro last.

Chili Lime Brown Rice Bowl:

Serves 3-6

2 cups brown rice, uncooked

2 medium onions, diced

5-6 cloves garlic, diced

1/4 cup lime juice

1 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp salt

6 cups spinach, torn into smaller pieces

2 avocados, mashed

4 tbsp Poppyseed vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Poppyseed Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup cane sugar (or coconut sugar)

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp poppyseed

1 cup water

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

 - Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake together to mix. Allow to sit at least 20 minutes for the flax to thicken the water.

1. To make the brown rice, first rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer for 30 seconds. Put into a pot with a tight fitting lid, and add enough water to cover the rice and go about 2 centimeters above the rice. Bring water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and put the lid on. Allow to simmer for 45 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for another 10 minutes before removing the lid. Then remove the lid and fluff the rice and add it to the onions. 

2. Start onions while the rice cooks! Saute onions on medium high, adding some of the lime juice whenever they start to stick to the pan. Once they are starting to become translucent add the garlic and the rest of the lime juice and saute another minute. Turn off heat and set aside until the rice is done.

3. Once the rice is done add it to the onions, along with the salt and cilantro.

4. To serve, serve the hot rice onion mixture and top with the spinach, avocado and dressing and mix together. People can scoop out however much rice they want and top with as much of the other toppings as much as desired, rather than mixing it all together first.