Signature Dish of the Day: Turmeric Rice & Mushroom Pilaf
Signature Dish of the Day: Happy Friday! Our signature dish of the day today is this beautiful, unbelievably flavorful, and absolutely delicious Turmeric Rice & Mushroom Pilaf 😍. As I have noted before, rice is a popular staple food in our household and we are always looking for ways to elevate the regular boiled rice dish to the next level in our incessant quest for variety and new flavors. I recently came up with this wholly vegetarian/vegan rice pilaf recipe out of the blue as a novel way to make good use of some large portobello mushrooms that we had recently purchased. It was purely a culinary experiment that thankfully yielded amazing results as pictured above!
To prepare this simple yet scrumptious dish, first prepare a sauté of 2 large portobello mushrooms separately in a sauté pan by heating about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the pan under medium-high heat for about 2 minutes. Pour in a combination of diced red onions and tomatoes then season with about 1/2 teaspoon each of ground black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, ginger powder, and a dash of salt. Stir these together thoroughly and let them cook for about 3 minutes uncovered. Thereafter, pour in chopped pieces of 2 large portobello mushrooms (any other mushroom can be substituted here) and mix well with the base ingredients to blend well together. Season the mushrooms with additional 1/2 teaspoon each of ground black pepper and some salt to taste, then cover the pan and let the mushrooms cook slowly under medium heat for about 15 minutes until they are tender and fully cooked through.
In a separate pot under medium-high heat, warm up a combination of 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of pure coconut oil for about 1 minute. Next, pour in 2 cups of rinsed basmati rice then sprinkle 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon of dry or fresh parsley flakes over the rice. Mix these ingredients together and allow the rice to toast just a little bit for about 2 minutes before adding 4 cups of water or vegetable broth. Season generously with some salt to taste, stir thoroughly, and let the rice continue to cook uncovered under medium-high heat. Once the water is nearly fully absorbed, lower the heat to lowest setting then cover the pot and allow the rice to completely absorb all the water until it's light and fluffy when stirred with a fork. Once done, finally pour the rice carefully into the mushroom sauté and mix thoroughly to blend well together. Garnish with one dry parsley flakes or cilantro, serve hot with some meat or vegetable stew, and savor every bite! Delicious, deeply flavorful, and fully gratifying...I hope you give this delectable dish a try soon. Enjoy! 😋💖💝
