Who doesn’t love a delicious garlic prawns recipe? While I love garlic prawns on their own, I wanted to turn the dish into a one pot meal and so I decided to combine it with rice and veggies. The result was this garlic, prawn, rice and broccoli dish that is all kinds of yummy and so easy to make for a quick mid-week one pot meal.
One of my healthy eating food goals for this year is to eat more vegetarian meals each week. We are usually fairly healthy only eating fresh food cooked from scratch but realised that we could cut down on eating meat. One of my favourite go to dishes is this Indian style vegetarian chili called Rajma (it’s vegan too) made with red kidney beans. Bags of flavour and warmth, this dish is traditionally served with just rice – it really needs nothing else. But if you feel like it you can make a side dish of some spiced veggies. I’ve grown up on this dish and it was always a favourite. I’ve even got my fussy eater to eat it so it not only makes a an easy and delicious mid-week family meal but also a very healthy one as kidney beans are so good for you as are many of the spices (like turmeric and cumin) in this dish.
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Eating fresh and healthy food as a family doesn’t have to mean boring. We love oriental style meals in this house as they always offers lots of flavour and often without too much effort. Home cooked oriental food is always better and so much healthier than a take-away. One of my favourites is this Vietnamese street food inspired dish of grilled chicken with rice and pickled veggies. The Vietnamese version almost always uses pork and noodles but I use chicken for a healthier option and I think rice works better than noodles in this dish so rice it is. I also use different herbs and spices than the traditional so you could say this is my take on a Vietnamese classic.
Once you try this dish, I promise you will never look back. How can ingredients like the ones pictured above be anything but flavourful? The grilled chicken in the dish is just delicious and all the other flavours come together to make for an absolutely beautiful bowl of food. What’s more this dish is versatile and can be adapted for different tastes within a family – if you want to go low carb, leave out the rice and have it on a bed of salad or if you’re eating really healthy use brown rice. Also the toppings are all optional so everybody can choose what they want on their dish. The dish takes a little effort to prep but you can strip it down for a quicker meal or go the whole hog when you have a bit more time. Like the pickled veg for instance – you can serve it with just freshly sliced veg instead of pickling when time is short.
VIETNAMESE GRILLED CHICKEN AND RICE RECIPE
Serves: 4
For the marinade:
700gms boneless & skinless chicken thighs
2-3 shallots very finely chopped
3 garlic cloves minced (add more or less depending on taste)
2 stalks fresh lemon grass lightly bruised and very finely chopped
50gms granulated sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
1.5 tbs dark soy sauce (the dark soy is important as it’s a lot thicker than usual soy)
1.5 tbs sesame oil
generous amount of freshly ground pepper
Toppings:
2-3 tbs toasted sesame seeds
handful of chopped coriander
3-4 thinly sliced spring onions (topped with 2 tbs hot olive oil and a pinch of salt and sugar)
1-2 sliced red chilies (optional)
Pickled veg:
2 x 3 inch piece of cucumber cut in to matchsticks
2 x 3 inch piece of carrot cut in to matchsticks
250ml warm water
40ml white vinegar (add more if you like a sharper taste)
1 tbs sugar
½ tsp salt
200-250gms basmati rice cooked as per packet instructions
Start by marinating the chicken thighs. Just trim any big pieces excess fat but leave a little on as you don’t want the chicken to dry out when it’s cooked. Cut in to large-ish bite size pieces. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl and add the chicken to this. Give it a very good mix and leave to marinate for at least 1.5-2 hours or longer.
For the picked veg, take a jar and combine the warm water, vinegar, sugar and salt stirring till the sugar is dissolved. Add the matchstick veg and leave to pickle. Even an hour or two will do for light pickling. I don’t like a sharp taste (I prefer a bit more sweetness) so I put very little vinegar but you can adjust quantities to your own taste. The best way to find the perfect quantities for you is to taste the pickling liquid before you put the veg in so you know exactly how sharp/sweet/salty it is.
Chop and prepare all the toppings if you haven’t done so yet. For the sesame seeds toast them lightly in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat. Move them around with a wooden spoon to make sure they toast evenly. Keep an eye on the seeds as once they start browning they can burn very easily. Once they’re lightly browned, take them off the heat and out of the frying pan immediately otherwise they will continue to cook.
That’s all the prep done! When you’re ready to eat cook the rice and place the chicken under a hot grill. You can also skewer the chicken and cook over a barbecue. It’s even more delicious but a grill works well too. Turn the chicken once – around halfway through cooking. The chicken will take around 10-15 minutes to cook and will come out all dark and beautifully caramelised. Scoop some rice in to a bowl, top with the chicken and the pickled veg. Then generously scatter some sesame seeds, coriander, spring onions and chilies (if using) and eat!
This Vietnamese grilled chicken and rice recipe is one of my favourite mid-week family dinners and it’s also a very tasty one dish meal to serve when you have a few friends over as it appeals to adults and kids. What’s more, kids love being given all the bits of the dish and building their own. Try it and you won’t regret it!
*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s Tasty Tuesdays.
We are huge foodies in this house. We LOVE to eat! And we love to cook. If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that we were doing a huge house renovation project which meant we haven’t had a kitchen for six months! But we do now and we’ve haven’t stopped cooking since. I am all for experiencing and eating different foods, foods from around the world but also food that is family friendly. In the past, I’ve often ended up cooking two meals in an evening – one for Anya and one for Richard and me. That just takes the joy out of cooking and it starts to feel like a chore. So I keep looking for new ideas and flavours that will feed us all and I thought I would share some of my favourties here too.
Even though Anya is a fussy eater, I’ve slowly been introducing her to new flavours and tastes and today I wanted to share my version of this delicious spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb recipe. This recipe has lots of spices which are exactly what gives this rice dish so much flavour but these spices are in no way spicy. What’s more, this Lebanese rice is a one pot meal making it a convenient and quick mid-week meal without compromising on flavour.
Spiced Lebanese rice with minced lamb recipe:
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
500 gms minced lamb (I prefer 10% fat but up to 20% is fine)
basmati rice*
1 medium onion
¾ tsp all spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 black cardamom pods (or ½ tsp ground cardamom)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground cumin
beef or chicken stock
1 tbs olive oil
large knob of butter
couple of handfuls of frozen peas
handful of coriander (optional)
*I measure my rice in a measuring jug so I know exactly how much liquid to add. I put in rice up to the 300ml mark and then I put in a little over double the amount of water/stock – around 700-750ml.
Start by finely chopping the onion. Then measure out your spices and keep them aside.
Next heat the olive oil in a fairly deep pan and add the chopped onions. Stir the onions until they soften and turn a very light brown. Add in the minced lamb to brown making sure that any clumps of meat are broken down. (These steps can be done a few hours in advance so I usually do this in the afternoon making the dish even quicker to put together at dinner time.)
If you’ve browned the lamb mince in advance, just heat it up first. Add the knob of butter and once melted throw in all your spices and really mix it well so that they are spread through the lamb. Add the rice and peas and give it all another very good mix. Add your hot stock, bring to the boil and let it all boil for a minute or two, turn down heat to low, cover and simmer for around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the rice as it’s done once the water has all evaporated. But make sure all the water has gone and it’s dry – if the rice is even a little wet it will be soggy and not as enjoyable. Often the rice at the bottom of the pan will burn a bit which makes that rice go crispy – this is the best bit of the dish so don’t throw it away, eat it!
I like to garnish with chopped coriander but that’s not essential. I usually have this with a simple red onion salad. Just thinly sliced red onions, sliced cucumbers and chopped coriander mixed together with a bit of salt, pepper and a ¾ teaspoon of vinegar.
This spiced Lebanese rice with mince lamb is a yummy little dish. If you give it a go, it may just become a weekly favourite as it’s become in our home. And the best bit is that not only is it a quick mid-week family dinner to put together, but you also have everything in one pot. This quantity comfortably feeds the three of us leaving a good amount leftover and this rice dish tastes even more delicious the next day.
P.S. If you want some more inspiration for tasty and easy mid-week family meals, take a look at my soba noodles recipe and my cheesy quesadillas.
*I’ve linked up to Honest Mum’s tasty Tuesday’s.
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