Once again, the Cheap, Fast, Good cookbook lived up to its name. Rice is very inexpensive and I had the left over salsa and a container of shredded cheese and some black olives in the refrigerator.
That is about all I needed to make the Rio Grande Rice to go with our tacos for supper tonight. I did make a couple of small changes. I rarely have chicken bouillon cubes on hand so I used chicken broth for the cubes and the two cups of water. Also I did not put the corn in the rice, but cooked it separate as Bettie doesn’t like corn.
This worked so well. The salsa gives this dish a whole different taste and I liked that I got some leftovers used up. Using up the leftovers is what keeps your grocery budget balanced.
I want to highly recommend this book. With today’s high prices and jobs getting hard to find, anything that will help you save money is very welcome. These recipes are easily cut down in size for smaller and senior families. Great work by the authors of this book. It is readily available and I have seen some used copies for not a whole lot.
Rio Grande Rice
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cups water
1 tablespoon fresh or dehydrated minced onion
½ cup mild or hot salsa
½ cup frozen yellow corn
1 can (2 ½ ounces) black olives sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup long grain rice
Pour 2 cups water into a 2 quart saucepan and place over high heat. Add the bouillon cubes, dehydrated onion, salsa, corn, olives (if using) and garlic. Bring to a boil. Add the rice, stir and cover the pan and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork, stirring to mix the ingredients. Sprinkle with some cheese if desired.
You can keep it a few minutes by leaving the lid on and not stirring till you are ready to eat.
Because of school and sports schedules, would it be possible to substitute instant rice, and if so, what ratio of liquid to instant rice would I use? Believe it or not, sometimes 20+ minutes is too much time and losing that extra 10 by using instant rice makes the difference of something warm to eat, or the kids demanding pb&j's. TIA
ReplyDeleteI would use the amount of Salsa called for and the amount of liquid the instant rice package suggests.
ReplyDeleteTry adding the Salsa a little at a time as you can always add more if you need the liquid but you can't
take it away. I don't see why instant rice wouldn't work. Maybe even boil in the bag if you use that.
The Salsa gives it a nice spicy flavor.