Beefy Rice (MORE INFORMATION)

A few details

When cooking: Rice is a plain cereal grain but has the ability to absorb other flavors, like for example beef broth. Beef broth will give the rice extra richness and slight meaty texture. In addition, mixing the rice with the tomatoes and onions will enhance the flavor of the rice even further.

The onion will add additional flavor however the styles used to cook the onion will keep the onion from being too strong in the final dish. Boiling half the onion in the beef broth will soften that half and dull the flavors. Meanwhile, cooking the other half of the onion in the tomato juice will keep the onion more firm (the tomato juice is more acid) but still dull some of the flavors. On a side note, cooking the onion in two different styles will result in different tastes for your onion (and hence more layers of flavor in the final dish).

The rice question: This dish works with brown rice or white rice. White rice will tend to absorb more of the tomato juice than the brown rice but otherwise there will be no real difference between the two in the recipe.

Alternatives

While this works in current form as a side dish, it is pretty easy to make into a main dish by mixing in a meat (cooked along with the tomatoes and onions before adding in the rice for example).

Another one of our favorite variations is skipping the skillet and baking the rice, tomato juice, tomatoes and onions once the rice has cooked. After fifteen minutes of baking you end up with a dish that tastes radically different (but in a really good way).