Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice (+ a small Meatless Monday rant)

I guess I have a love/hate relationship with this phenomenon of “Meatless Monday”.  I obviously love it because I have been a vegetarian for 18+ years, and although I am all about everyone’s right to choose what goes into their bodies, I really think that people need to start making more conscious and informed decisions when it comes to their (and their entire family’s) daily diet.  I do, however, get discouraged when I see articles like one that appeared last week on the Huffington Post called “24 Recipes To Make Meatless Monday Go Down Easier”.  My first thought upon seeing this title was that it was going to be full of easy (meatless) recipes that would help ease omnivores into meatless meals.  Hmmm…I should have known that something in the Food section of the Huffington Post would do no such thing.  Don’t get me wrong…the recipes look and sound delicious and certainly seem solid in both flavor and nutrition, but I can see how the complexity of both preparation and ingredients could terrify someone who has just a mild curiosity about going meatless ever so often and send them running straight back to the familiarity of the meat counter and/or processed foods.

There are plenty of great chefs/cooks out there (both professional and at home) for whom the Huffington Post article will be a fantastic resource.  I may even attempt a few of them, but I doubt that any of them will ever end up in my meal rotation.  My goal is to help people who perhaps aren’t so confident in the kitchen or who just plain don’t have the time or energy to devote to complicated meals with tons of ingredients ease away from meat as often as they want to.

Which brings me to the recipe for today’s Meatless Monday:  Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice.  Now I must confess that I have only been to Chipotle one time, and that was a few years ago.  I must also confess that I remember pretty much nothing about my meal.  I was (and still am when we visit) always a Baja Fresh girl when living in Southern California, but this rice sounded tasty when I came across the recipe in another blog.  Living in New Mexico has forever changed the way that I eat rice and beans (now doused in hot green chile), but this is definitely a tasty alternative.

 

Chipotle’s Cilantro Lime Rice

from Stephanie Cooks

Ingredients:

*1 cup extra long grain brown rice or brown basmati rice

*Juice of 1/2-1 whole lime (I used a whole lime, but go with your own tastes)

*2 cups water

*1 tsp salt

*3-5 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro (again to taste)

*2 tsp vegetable oil

 

To make:

*In a pot add rice, water, 1 tsp. oil, and salt.

*Boil on high until most of the water evaporates. (This took about 15 min for me.  Keep an eye on your pot.)

*When the water just skims the top of the rice, reduce heat to low, cover, and let cook for about 15 minutes.

*Shut off flame, cover and let sit for another 5 minutes.

*In a medium bowl combine the lime juice, cilantro, and the other tsp. of oil. Stir well.  Add to rice, stir together until well coated.

 

Survey Says:

This rice was delicious!  I was a little hesitant to try out this recipe because neither Jake nor I have ever really had good luck making rice  (I even manage to screw up rice in the rice cooker!), but I am so glad that I did!  It turned out perfectly and you can flavor it with the cilantro and lime as much or as little as you care to.  You can see that we enjoyed it with some black beans and chips (as well as cheese and sour cream added after the photo was taken)!  I will definitely make this again soon!  I will also let you know that the original recipe calls for white rice, but we just don’t keep it in the house anymore and it tasted great with the brown.