Arroz Primavera (Colombian Spring Rice with Vegetables)

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Rice toasted in oil with onion, garlic, carrot and bell pepper, then cooked in broth with peas and sweet corn stirred through. It is the rice that turns a plain lunch into a full one. Half an hour, for four.

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: Spring Rice

Servings:

Calories: 458kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

300 g rice
3 tablespoons oil
½ onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 carrots diced
½ red bell pepper pimentón: the fresh vegetable, not paprika powder, cubed
3 cups water or chicken broth
150 g peas
150 g sweet corn
Salt to taste

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large pot, add the onion and cook until it turns translucent. Add the garlic, the carrot and the bell pepper and cook for five minutes more.
Add the rice and stir it through the oil until every grain is coated and glossy, which takes a minute or two.
Pour in the 3 cups of water or broth and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat.
Add the peas and the sweet corn, cook for ten minutes more, stir and serve.

Notes

The sweet corn is sweet corn, not cornstarch. The instruction on this page said cornstarch, which is a different product entirely and would turn the pot gluey, and the confusion comes from the two sharing a root in Spanish. What goes in is the 150 grams of corn kernels from the ingredient list, at the same time as the peas. Coating the rice in oil before the liquid arrives is worth the minute it takes. Each grain gets a film of fat around it, which keeps the grains separate instead of letting them clump, and it gives the rice a faint toasted flavour. The Spanish verb for it is nacarar, to pearl, because the grain turns from chalky white to translucent as it happens. Three cups of liquid for 300 grams of rice is the right ratio: rice takes about twice its own volume, and 300 grams is a good cup and a half. The recipe used to call for two cups, which leaves the grain hard in the middle and the bottom of the pot stuck. Judge it by the grain rather than the clock all the same.

Nutrition