Description

This toasty fragrant rice dish is the perfect party side dish and is easily adaptable for dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan preferences.

Ingredients

Scale

2–4 Tablespoons Oil or Butter

2 1/2 cups Long grain rice (Basmati)

1 1/2 cups Orzo or Israeli Cous Cous or vermicelli*

1/2 cup Quinoa (red or black adds visual appeal) **

1 cup diced onion or shallot

1–2 Tablespoons minced garlic

salt to taste

7 1/2 Flavorful, well-seasoned broth (chicken, veg or other)***

1–2 Cups Garnishes – dried fruit, pine nuts, walnuts, shaved almonds and/or diced carrot. (Optional)

Herbs and spices (Optional)

Chopped Fresh Herbs to sprinkle after cooking (Optional)

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Instructions

In a saute pan with oil or butter, toast the Orzo, Israeli Cous Cous or Vermicelli until golden brown all over. Transfer the pasta to the hotel pan or oven-proof dish.
Add a little more oil and saute the onion and garlic. Add the rice and cook for another 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until well coated in oil with some grains of rice toasted. Transfer this batch to the hotel pan.
Add any optional spices, herbs, vegetable ingredients, or dried fruit to the hotel pan.
At this point you can either 1) cover the hotel pan with a layer of parchment and tin foil for transport and place the broth in a separate container. Or 2) Add the cold/room temp broth, cover the hotel pan with parchment and foil and bake at 400 F for 50 minutes. Carefully lift a corner of the foil for a peak. Watch out for the steam. If it’s still pretty wet, cook for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and keep covered for 5-10 minutes. Fluff the rice up with a spatula or serving spoon. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed and sprinkle generously with fresh herbs.
Serve.

Notes

* To Make Gluten-Free – replace the orzo or Israeli Cous Cous with rice

** If you don’t have quinoa, you can replace this with rice.

*** The broth makes this dish. I recommend good quality home-made broth that is heavily seasoned.

NOTE: If scaling this recipe up for a large party with multiple full-size hotel pans (say for 100 people) – follow steps 1-2 but dump all the rice, quinoa, toasted orzo/couscous, and sauteed onion and garlic into a large mixing bowl. Then transfer 10 cups of this mixture to each full-size hotel pan.