Mexican red rice

Plan a week with Latin American dishes

Let's cook

1. Put the tomatoes, onion and garlic in a blender and blend until completely smooth. You should have about 250ml.
2. Rinse the rice in a sieve under the cold tap until the water runs almost clear, then leave it to drain well for a few minutes. Dry rice fries better.
3. Heat the oil in a wide pan with a tight lid on a medium heat. Add the rice and fry it for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring often, until the grains turn from see-through to white and some are pale golden. This toasting gives the dish its nutty taste and keeps the grains separate.
4. Stir in the tomato purée for 1 minute. Pour in the blended tomato mixture and cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until it thickens and darkens and most of it has been soaked up.
5. Add the hot stock, cumin, salt and carrot. Stir once and bring it to the boil. Put the lid on, turn the heat down as low as it goes and cook for 15 minutes without stirring.
6. Lift the lid, scatter the frozen peas over the top without stirring, cover again and cook for 5 minutes more.
7. Take the pan off the heat and leave it, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork, mixing in the peas. Scatter over the coriander and serve with the lime wedges.

Tips

• Do not stir once the lid is on: stirring breaks the grains and makes the rice sticky.
• If the rice is still firm when you lift the lid, add 3 tablespoons of water, cover and cook for 5 minutes more.
• To keep leftovers, cool them quickly, put them in the fridge within 1 hour and eat within 1 day, reheated once until steaming hot.

Swaps

• Spicier: blend half a green chilli in with the tomatoes.
• No fresh tomatoes: use half a 400g tin of plum tomatoes.
• Richer: use chicken stock (it is then no longer vegan).

More in the Latin American meal plan

Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.