Brown Spanish Rice

If you’ve hung around my blog for any length of time you know that I LOVE Mexican food. It doesn’t really matter what type of Mexican food, I just love it all. I made Spanish rice for years and years with white rice and always felt like it was a great addition to tacos, burritos or whatever.

But when I started eating the Trim Healthy Mama way, I for whatever reason felt like my Spanish rice had to go because it was made with white rice. That was a sad day….

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I just couldn’t part with it, so I slowly started tweaking my old Spanish Rice recipe. The result is delicious and fills that void for my old rice.

I always keep all the ingredients for Spanish rice in my pantry at all times. If I need a quick meal or side dish I know I can pull it together without much thought. If you’re wondering what I keep stocked in my pantry, give this article a read.

 

 

It’s a very inexpensive side dish and is always a crowd-pleaser whenever I bring it to a get-together. My favorite way to eat Brown Spanish Rice is in a chicken taco salad.

I cook the chicken breast and add taco seasoning. Then I layer it with lettuce, rice, a few black or pinto beans and some on-plan salsa or pico de gallo. Very refreshing and filling!

 

 

My kids love to make what they call Tex Mex bowls. They do a scoop of this Brown Spanish Rice, a scoop of refried beans, lettuce and salsa.

I love when they ask for this for dinner because it is such a filling and inexpensive meal to feed them. My kids also love this same combo in a tortilla shell.

You can have up to 3/4 c. cooked brown rice in an E meal. Sometimes I’ll only eat about 1/3 c. of the rice and have some black or refried beans with it.

If you are at the stage where you can have an S Helper meal, you can have 1/4 c. of brown rice and eat it with ground beef taco meat. So many ways to enjoy it!

(This is an S Helper version of a burrito bowl. I used 1/4 c. of the Spanish Rice in the bottom of the bowl.)

This recipe is SO easy to make! It requires very little hands-on time which I love. Really less than 5 minutes of actual work. 🙂

First, heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onion, green pepper and rice. Cook, stirring frequently until the onions are translucent.

Add the water, tomatoes, chili powder and salt to the pot and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer until rice is done (about 40-45 minutes). I check on it and stir it periodically just to make sure it isn’t sticking to the bottom or anything. Serve and top with sliced green onions if desired.

 

 

You can also make this Brown Spanish Rice in your Instant Pot for a really really easy side dish! The hands-on time is about the same as making it on the stovetop, but it cooks SO much faster.

Push the Saute button and add the oil to the pot. Let the oil heat up for a minute or two. Add the onion and rice and saute for 5 minutes.

Add the water, tomatoes, chili powder and salt to the pot. Put the lid on the pot.

Push the Cancel button and push the pressure gauge handle to the back so the pot is able to be pressurized.

Push the Manual button and select 16 minutes. Once the cooking time is over let the pot depressurize for 10 minutes and then manually release the steam. Serve and top with sliced green onions if desired.