Green Rice Arroz Verde Recipes

Steps:

• To make the rice: Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan with a heavy bottom or small Dutch oven. Add the rice and the salt and stir to coat. When the rice starts to appear opaque and chalky, add enough cold water to cover the rice by the width of 2 fingers (about 1-inch). Bring to a rapid boil, and boil-without stirring!-until the water level reaches the level of the rice. Stir the rice once and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the spinach mix: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic, stirring so it doesn't stick, and cook until fragrant. Stir in the spinach and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook until the spinach is just heated through. Don't overcook or the spinach will discolor.
• Once the rice has finished cooking, fold the spinach into the pot. Fluff the rice so that the spinach is evenly distributed. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if necessary. If you like, add a couple of drizzles of olive oil to give the rice a little gloss.

Steps:

• The flavoring: In a 2-quart saucepan, combine the broth and chiles, bring to a boil, then partially cover and simmer gently over medium to medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the chiles are very soft. Pour the chile mixture into a food processor, add the cilantro (stems and all), and process to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh strainer into a bowl and stir in the salt.
• The rice: Wipe the pan clean, add the oil and heat over medium. Add the rice and onion, and cook, stirring regularly, until the rice is chalky looking and the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a minute longer.
• Add the warm (or reheated) chile liquid to the hot rice pan, stir once, scrape down any rice kernels clinging to the side of the pan, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Uncover and check a grain of rice: It should be nearly cooked through. If the rice is just about ready, turn off the heat, re-cover and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes longer to complete the cooking. If the rice seems far from done, continue cooking for 5 minutes or so, retest, then turn off the heat and let stand a few minutes longer. Fluff with a fork, scoop into a warm serving dish, decorate with cilantro sprigs and it's ready to serve.
• Advance preparation: The rice can be made several days ahead; turn out the fluffed rice onto a baking sheet to cool, transfer to a storage container, then cover and refrigerate. Reheat the rice in a steamer basket set over boiling water.
• Variations and improvisations: An obvious variation is to use 3 or 4 long green (Anaheim) chiles, or to mix poblanos and long greens with hotter chiles like jalapeño, manzano or habanero. Grilled corn cut from 1 cob or 1 large grilled zucchini (cubed) are tasty vegetable add-ins. About 1 cup coarsely shredded roast (or barbecued) pork or smoked salmon, mixed in toward the end of cooking, will make green rice a full meal.

Steps:

• Place the peppers, scallions, parsley, cilantro, garlic, and salt (if using chicken stock, reduce amount of salt to 1 tsp) in a food processor and process until smooth. Add a little water if needed.
• Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the rice and stir to coat all the grains. Cook, stirring for about 2 minutes more.
• Add the ingredients from the blender to the rice and stir two more minutes, to incorporate well.
• Add the chicken broth or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook until the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
• Turn the heat off and stir in the lime juice, making sure it's evenly dispersed.