Easy Spanish Rice, also known as Mexican Rice, is a simple and delicious way to make rice more exciting and a must-have side dish at any Tapas dinner party.
Heat 0.5 tablespoon Olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add 1 Onion and 1 Red bell pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
Add 180 g Rice and stir. Toast the rice in the pan for 2 minutes.
Add 250 ml Vegetable stock, 2 Garlic clove, 2 tablespoon Tomato puree, 1 teaspoon Smoked paprika, 0.5 teaspoon Chilli powder, 0.5 teaspoon Ground cumin, 1 teaspoon Dried oregano, 125 ml Passata, juice of 0.5 Lemonand 1 pinch Sea salt and black pepperStir and simmer for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has gone.
Remove from the heat, fluff up the rice with a fork and add 10 g Fresh parsley.
Notes
Make this dish even easier and swap out half the tomato sauce for some salsa. You will need to then adjust the seasoning, but it's a really easy way to add lots of flavour.
The amount of liquid in this recipe should be seen as a guideline. If you cook this at a higher cooking temperature, then you may need to add some extra liquid, so do keep checking on it.
Make sure you don't skip the step of toasting the rice first. You want to make sure that it is almost translucent before adding the sauce. Once the sauce is added, make sure you bring it to the boil before lowering it to a simmer, otherwise the rice won't be cooked through.
Make sure you don't overcook the rice, otherwise the whole dish will become mushy.
Don't cook it so long that there is no liquid left in the pan, as some of the liquid will absorb as it cools down with the lid on before fluffing it up.