Let’s talk Christmas traditions! In Perú one of the most common side dishes to the all-classic turkey is Arab rice but we take a spin on it. We add raisins and also a sweet component to deepen the flavours. Usually that sweet component is Coca Cola, but this time I will be replacing it with soy sauce for colour and brown sugar for sweetness.
This rice dish is really delicious and it goes amazing with turkey and gravy. Also at my table there are never enough sweet and savoury dishes because to me that’s Christmas in a nutshell. Remember that there’s a whole Christmas Recipes section for you to browse for further inspiration.
The classic Arab rice with the Peruvian twist doesn’t have almonds but I LOVE to add crunchy elements to my Christmas rice. I jut think it makes it more interesting. What do you guys think? I would love to hear what’s usually on your Christmas dinner and your favourites. Sound off below :).
I rarely use cups as measurements for recipes but honestly it works perfectly for rice because the proportion is all about the volume rather than the weight and it doesn’t need to be extremely accurate either. So rejoice that I’m using cups for this one hahaha.
Christmas Arab Rice Peruvian Style
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g cappellini broken into 5cm long pieces
- 1 garlic clove minced, grated or puréed
- 2 cups rice
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2.5 cups water boiling
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 100 g raisins hydrated in boiling water for 10min
- salt to taste
- toasted almonds for garnish chopped
Instructions
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Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water in a bowl.
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Toast the cappellini in olive oil on medium heat until really golden and set aside.
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Add more olive oil to the pan if needed and cook the garlic for 1 minute. Add the rice and cook while moving for a couple minutes.
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Add the raisins, pasta, soy sauce, salt and water and give it a stir. Taste the water to see if it's salty enough.
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Let it come to a boil on medium heat and reduce the heat to minimum. Put a lid on the pot and let it cook for around 20min. If your stove i too intense even at minimum you can put a pan under the pot so the heat arrives more gently.
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Uncover and use a fork to peek at the bottom and see if it's dry. If it is, move the rice around with a fork to fluff up.
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Serve and top with toasted chopped almonds.
