Shaker Gourmet: Spanish Rice

Our recipe this week comes from Shaker Lexy of the blog Runs in Her Stockings.

Spanish Rice
2 tbps Butter (or olive oil)
1 small onion chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
salt/pepper to taste
1 tsp chipotle chile powder (or to taste)
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp hot sauce
1 cup long grain rice
2 cups chicken stock (or veggie stock)

1. Heat butter in a 3-4 qt sauce pan over medium heat. Once butter has melted add vegetables and salt/pepper/chile powder.

2. Sauté vegetables until soft, about 5 minutes, watch heat so butter doesn't burn. Add rice, tomato paste, and hot sauce.

3. Toast rice/paste mixture for 2 minutes, lower heat if necessary to avoid burning. Add chicken stock and raise to medium-high heat.

4. Bring mixture to a boil then cover and bring heat to low. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Makes 4 servings
Spicy rating a 6 (out of 10)

Lexy adds: "In lieu of chopping onions and peppers you can use a frozen onion/bell pepper mix to save time. Also I use unsalted butter, low sodium chicken stock and no salt added tomato paste, if you use salted varieties you may want to omit salt when sautéing the veggies, but that's to individual taste. Substituting olive oil for butter and veggie stock for chicken makes it vegan/vegetarian in a jiffy!"

If you'd like to participate in Shaker Gourmet, email me (include a blog link!) at: shakergourmet (at) gmail.com