Brown basmati rice with dates, mint and crispy onion
I’m totally in love with the combination of fluffy rice and extra fun goodies, with each bite bringing a new surprise to your palate. This is a wonderful way to make your rice much more exciting for guests, and if you are cooking for yourself, leave out the onions (or buy ready made ones)!
Even so, with everything done separately, this can still be whipped in up 20-30 minutes, and really is lovely – deep frying the onions only takes an extra 5 minutes or so, and does add a special touch.
I’ve kept the recipe basic here, but you can easily go more overboard with some pistachios, some saffron dissolved in hot water sprinkled on top, some cranberries, or basically whatever else you feel like 🙂
Brown basmati rice with lemon dates and crispy onions
Ingredients
- 1 cup Brown basmati rice, cooked according to package instructions Can use any rice you have on hand, just cook it until it’s light and fluffy.
- a big handful fresh mint, chopped
- 2 tsp each of coriander and cumin seeds
- zest of one lemon, in thin strips
- a handful of whole dates
- 1 medium onion, sliced as thinly as possible into rings
- oil for frying
- salt
Instructions
- Get your rice cooking however you usually do it – we usually bang into the microwave until done.Put a small saucepan on high heat and toast the cumin and coriander seeds for a minute or 2, moving constantly until fragrant. Add to the rice (or into a separate bowl if your rice is still cooking).Halve the dates lengthwise and remove the seed, then slice into matchsticks lengthwise. Add to the rice. Zest the lemon into thin strips – if you don’t have a zester, the easiest way to do this is to peel thinly with a sharp veggie peeler and then slice into matchsticks.
- Heat up 2cm of oil in your small saucepan mentioned above. While you are doing that, sprinkle your cut onions with salt and then deep fry in batches until starting to turn brown and crispy. Rest on kitchen paper to drain and then add to the rice. Toss everything together and serve warm or at room temperature!
