Rice toasted in oil with onion and garlic and then cooked in broth blended with spinach and cilantro. The colour comes from the greens and nothing else.
Blend the greens cold
This is the whole technique and it is why the recipe blends before it cooks rather than stirring greens into the pot.
Spinach and cilantro dropped into boiling liquid go grey in under a minute. Chlorophyll does not survive prolonged heat, and once the colour has gone there is no getting it back.
Blended raw into cold broth, the colour is already dispersed through the liquid the rice is about to absorb. The rice takes it up as it cooks, and what comes out of the pot is green all the way through rather than green on the outside.
Toast the rice first
The second step softens the onion and garlic in oil and then adds the rice, dry, stirring it about for a few minutes before any liquid goes in.
It is worth doing properly. The grains should go from chalky white to faintly translucent at the edges, and they will smell faintly of toast. That coating of oil is what keeps them separate rather than letting them clump.
This is how Colombian rice is made generally, green or not, and it is the reason a pot of it comes out loose.
It fades, so serve it
Green rice looks best in the first ten minutes and slowly dulls after that.
There is nothing to be done about it beyond timing: make it last, serve it straight from the pot, and do not hold it warm for half an hour under a lid. Reheated the next day it is still perfectly good rice, but it will be olive rather than green.
The few minutes of resting off the heat in the last step are worth keeping, though. That is what lets the grains firm up before the fork goes in.
What it goes with
This is a side dish, not a meal, and it is treated as one. It sits under grilled chicken or a piece of fish, next to a salad, in place of the plain white rice that would otherwise be there.
Half a pound of rice serves three that way. If you want it to carry more of the plate, stir cooked peas or corn through it at the end, which also keeps the colour going.
More rice
- Colombian white rice — the plain version.
- Arroz con coco titoté — the sweet one.
- Mushroom rice — with white wine.
- Grilled chicken breast — what it goes under.
Arroz Verde FAQ
Spinach and cilantro or parsley, blended raw into the cold broth before it goes anywhere near heat. Nothing is added for colour.
Because they lose their colour in seconds in a hot pot. Blended into cold liquid, the colour is already distributed through the rice before the heat reaches it.
It sat too long. The colour is brightest straight off the heat and dulls as it stands, so this is a dish to serve immediately rather than keep warm.
Your choice, and the recipe offers both. Straining gives a paler, cleaner rice; leaving it gives a stronger colour and small flecks of green through the grain.
Either. Cilantro tastes more Colombian and is stronger; parsley is milder and gives a cleaner green. Some people use half of each.
Two cups of blended broth to half a pound of rice, which is about a cup and a quarter. If the pot dries before the grain is done, add a quarter cup of hot water and cover it again without stirring.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ pound rice (about 1¼ cups)
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (water works too)
- ½ cup spinach (leaves only, packed)
- ½ cup parsley or cilantro
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 onion
- Oil
Notas
Instructions
- In the blender, put the broth with the spinach leaves, the parsley or cilantro, salt and pepper, and blend until it is completely smooth and evenly green. Set it aside.
- In a pot, heat the oil with the finely chopped onion and garlic, soften them, then add the rice. Stir often so it does not catch: the grains should turn from chalky to slightly translucent.
- After a few minutes, pour in the blended liquid. You can use it as it is or strain it, which gives a paler colour and a cleaner texture.
- Bring it to the boil and, when the liquid at the surface has gone, cover the pot and turn the heat down low.
- Leave it for another 15 to 20 minutes without lifting the lid.
- Turn off the heat and let it stand a few minutes before fluffing it with a fork.
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