summer vegetable rice bowl

serves: 1 & some
time: 30 min

ingredients:
- brown rice (I made one cup and had lots left over)
- 1/3 can drained chickpeas
- 12 pods of peas
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper
- 5 basil leaves
- sunflower sprouts
- black pepper
- coriander
- dill
- sea salt
- olive oil, 1 tbsp
- butter, 1 tsp
- lemon juice

directions:

1. Cook the rice according to directions. I used brown basmati, which takes about 25 minutes to cook.
2. While rice is cooking, slice the zucchini, dice pepper, shell the peas and chop the basil.
3. Using a medium sized frying pan, cook the veggies and chickpeas in 1 tbsp of olive oil. While cooking, add the spices and lemon juice to taste (I recommend at least 2 tbsp of lemon juice).
4. When veggies are cooked, stir in the butter and remove from heat.
5. Mix equal parts vegetable mixture and rice together, garnish with pea sprouts.

TIP: Zucchini can take a long time to cook. I sliced it with a vegetable peeler so that the slices would be even and thin.

Blueberry Banana Smoothie

Serves 1.

Ingredients:
1 cup yogurt
1 tsp cardamom (ground)
1 ripe banana
1/4-1/2 cup frozen blueberries
a splash of milk (to thin to desired consistency)

Directions:
Place ingredients in a blender, blend.
Serve in a large glass.

Note: The cardamom in the smoothie was an impulse decision but it was a tasty one. It gave some body to the flavour.

Colusari Red Rice

I had never had red rice before, but I really enjoyed this. It turns out that Colusari Red Rice is not only nutty, chewy and delicious: it is high in iron and fibre, and also contains calcium and protein. It is grown in California.
To cook, boil 3 parts water to one part rice. When the water is boiled, add the rice and let simmer on very low heat for about 40 minutes.

Sweet Potato Rice Bowl

Mmm. I was quite happy with how this recipe turned out. I experimented by using tea as cooking liquid to cut down on the oil I needed. I've heard about cooking with tea for a while and wanted to try it out. The tea didn't give quite as much flavour to the vegetables as I would have liked, but overall I was very pleased with the taste of this recipe.

Ingredients:

2/3 c. uncooked Colusari Red Rice

1 med. large sweet potato, cubed

2 small onions, sliced

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Glaze:

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp rosemary (dried)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp cumin

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp raisins (or more, if you'd like)

1/2-3/4 cup black tea (I used assam, any variety would do, the earthier the better)

a drizzle of maple syrup

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 380℉.
2. Cook rice according to directions (approximately 45 minutes).
3. Mix glaze ingredients together.
4. Pour glaze over vegetables and bake for 20-40 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are soft.
5. Lightly toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan.
6. Add veggies to rice, top with hazelnuts and serve.

Note: I imagine this would also turn out well with apples thrown in with the vegetables, or with cider or apple juice used instead of tea to glaze the vegetables.

Serves 2 hungry people.

London Fog

London Fogs are a favourite rainy day drink of mine. Although they're fairly simple - an Earl Grey tea latte with a shot of vanilla syrup - I thought I would post my way of making them.
1. Boil water
2. While water is boiling, measure out one teaspoon of Earl Grey tea (or use one tea bag).
3. When the water boils, steep your tea. When I make lattes, I generally add a minute onto the time I normally steep tea for, because the flavour is slightly weakened by the milk. For a London Fog, this means 4.5-5 minutes.
4. While tea is steeping, fill another mug 1/3 full of milk
5. Add vanilla syrup. A standard amount is usually an ounce or half ounce, however I prefer to use much less syrup - at most a teaspoon. You could use normal vanilla extract, too - a quarter teaspoon of pure vanilla extract works well. Extract contains much less sugar, so if you do this you may wish to add a bit of sugar, too - or just enjoy the flavours.
6. Heat the milk in the microwave (you don't have to do this, but it helps the milk to foam).
7. Froth the milk. You could do this before adding the vanilla, but I like the way the flavour then mixes in with the milk.
8. Once your tea is done, add the tea to the milk foam. If you pour quickly without moving the mug, you should be able to do this without really affecting the foam.

Enjoy!

A note on Earl Grey Tea.

Earl Grey is tea, typically black, which has been scented (or flavoured) with bergamot, a type of citrus fruit. There are many varieties, but the most common distinction is between the ones that use real bergamot oil and the ones which use artificial bergamot flavour. Another popular kind of tea is Earl Grey Creme, which contains vanilla and mallow flowers as well as the bergamot. This tea also works well for London Fogs. There is a lot of difference in the taste of Earl Grey teas, and I would encourage you to try different kinds to see which you like.