Yellow rice with vegetables (arroz amarillo)
Cuban-style yellow rice simmered in a garlicky pepper sofrito with tomato, peas, corn and sweet red peppers, a cheap one-pot dinner that tastes like a Cuban kitchen.
- 45 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.76 a serving
- 410 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-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
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice, rinsed
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1¾ cups vegetable broth
- ¾ cup frozen peas
- ¾ cup frozen corn
- ½ cup roasted red peppers, sliced
- 1 avocado, sliced (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 bay leave
Each serving has about 410 calories, 9 g protein, 77 g carbs and 8 g fat, and costs about $1.76 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 green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No avocados? Guacamole works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and green pepper and cook, stirring now and then, 6 minutes, until soft.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Dolly’s tip: This softened onion, pepper and garlic mix is a sofrito, the flavor base of Cuban cooking.Stir in the garlic, cumin, oregano and turmeric 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 yellow and shiny.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Stir in the tomato sauce, broth, salt and bay leaf 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
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 peas, corn and red peppers 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 and leave it covered 5 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf, fluff with a fork and serve with avocado.
Timer: 5 min
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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