One-pot Mediterranean rice
Lemony rice cooked with sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes and olives, with spinach wilted in and salty feta on top, all in one pot.
- 40 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $3.31 a serving
- 510 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ⅓ cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice, rinsed
- 2½ cups vegetable broth
- 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
- ⅓ cup Kalamata olives, halved
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 510 calories, 12 g protein, 76 g carbs and 18 g fat, and costs about $3.31 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No Kalamata olives? Black olives work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat the oil in a large pot with a lid over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring now and then, 5 minutes, until soft.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Stir in the garlic, oregano and sun-dried tomatoes for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Add the rice and stir 1 minute, until every grain is shiny.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Pour in the broth, add the salt and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Dolly’s tip: Go easy on salt here. The olives and feta add plenty.Stir once, cover, turn the heat to low and cook 15 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: Don’t lift the lid while it cooks. The trapped steam is what cooks the rice.Scatter the artichokes and olives over the rice, cover again and cook 5 minutes more, until the liquid is gone.
Low heatTimer: 5 min
Take the pot off the heat, stir in the spinach, lemon and lemon juice, and cover 5 minutes so the spinach .
Zest. Zest is the thin, colored outer layer of citrus peel, rubbed off on the smallest holes of a grater. It holds the fruit’s fragrant oils, so it adds bright flavor without the sourness of juice.
How you’ll know: You see bright flecks and smell citrus right away; stop when you reach the white layer, which is bitter.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Timer: 5 min
Fluff with a fork and serve topped with the feta, pepper and parsley.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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