Are you a fan of brown rice? I can’t say that I am, but there is a brown rice that I actually enjoy. It’s the brown rice that is served at Chipotle Mexican Grill, my favorite “fast-casual” restaurant. I took one of their menus home and made my own version. (It’s just rice, lime and cilantro. I simply had to play around with the combinations.) This rice is so good that it can easily be substituted for white rice…especially in Mexican meals!
Simple Cilantro-Lime Brown Rice
Yield: 4 cups cooked rice
Ingredients:
• 1 cup uncooked brown rice
• 2 tsp cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1 tsp ground sea salt
Directions:
1. Bring water to a boil (2 ½ cups of water for every 1 cup of rice) in a saucepan over a high heat.
2. Add the rice to the boiling water, stir the rice and let the combination come back to a boil.
3. Cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to a low setting. Simmer the covered rice for 45 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed. (I check by tilting my saucepan to the side to see if there is still any extra water around the edges. If there is, I cover it back up and let it simmer for another couple of minutes and check back again.)
4. When the water is absorbed, remove the saucepan from the heat.
5. Fluff the rice with a fork before placing it into a large bowl. Add the cilantro, lime juice and sea salt to the rice and toss everything together in the bowl before serving.
Variations
You can substitute kosher salt or regular table salt if you don’t have sea salt on hand.
That was easy, right? Now, if you need some other Mexican recipes to go along with your rice, consider the following FCM recipes…