Hello, hello!
I was recently gifted an entire pantry’s worth (or more) of food from a friend who moved out of state. After several hours of reorganizing my cupboards to make the bounty fit, I sat down and concocted my weekly meal plan based on my new stock of food. I’ve been on a much-needed break from the brownie book but hope to get back into the act since I now have plenty of cocoa powder, sweeteners, flours, and even raw cacao nibs! Hooray!
Anyways, one of my favorite meals is the Rice Pilaf with Caramelized Onions from The Kind Diet. The recipe calls for pecans which I never seem to have since nuts cost a fortune these days. Part of my pantry stash included hazelnuts, which are a perfectly acceptable substitute in my opinion. It also, obviously, calls for brown rice which I now have mountains of in my cupboard.
This recipe is incredibly versatile. You can switch up the ingredients and be completely satisfied with the results. For example, I am one of those crazy people who has trouble eating a meal without one of the components being green. I usually add kale or broccoli to this dish. Tonight I chose peas for the green ingredient. Everything combined (parsnips, carrots, onions, peas, pumpkin seeds, rice, and hazelnuts) made for a delicious, relatively quick dinner.
If you own The Kind Life and haven’t made this recipe yet, you should! And then have a ginger cookie (or three) for dessert!!
yum, amy! i always switch out nuts too–usually whatever is local. in new orleans it was pecans all the time, but now obs it’s hazelnuts. good thing for me, ‘cuz hazelnuts are one of my all time favorites, especially the toasted ones from the farmar (which are featured in the current martha stewart living). glad the bounty went to a noble recipient.
xo
kittee
Hi Kittee! I’ve never had the toasted hazelnuts from the farmers market. Now I’m sad. Are they at the Saturday market by PSU?
Peas and hazelnuts sound perfect!
Hazelnuts and hazelnuts is perfect too!! Hahaa!
That rice sounds so yummy with peas, parsnips, and hazelnuts. I love recipes that are so versatile.
I just read your Ginger Cookie post too. Thank you for the reminder that I need to make ginger cookies ASAP now that Fall is here :)
The best part about the ginger cookies is how wonderfully they go with a cup of tea – perfect for the onset of cold weather!
I just made the ginger cookies this morning (being home sick means lots of kitchen time!). They are so good! Just the perfect amount of chewy with a nice molasses kick along with the ginger!
Yay! I am so glad you enjoyed the ginger cookies, Aimee! I hope you feel better soon (ginger is healing, you know!).
That looks fabulous! And I am totally with you on adding green to all of my foods. I usually throw in frozen broccoli.