For the past week or two, I’ve been struggling to find new healthy vegetarian recipes to make. I’m kind of a finicky eater so my dinners have to meet a few requirements. They need to be:
  • Healthy
  • Filling
  • Something I’m in the mood to eat (which I don’t know until the day of sometimes!)
  • Cheese free (Well, mostly. I really working on cutting back on my dairy intake.)
This is really tough if you think about it. I HATE eating salads for dinner, they just tend to make me mad when I’m really hungry. I eat some salad and 30 minutes later I’m starving.  To me, the salad did not perform it’s duty as food . Seriously! Food is supposed to make you full, at least for a little while, right?!
Also, I have to be in the mood to eat what I’m making. I’m weird like that. I’m usually always in the mood for Mexican food (meatless tacos, soups, etc. ) but lately I’m Mexican food-ed (yea, that’s a word) out so I wanted to try something Italian with no cheese. That was a difficult recipe to find to say the least. I love a good soup so I decided to try this White Bean and Arborio Rice Soup recipe from vegetariantimes.com
Ingredients:
  • 3 Tbs. olive oil, divided
  • ⅔ cup Arborio rice
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
  • 3 ¼ tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
  • 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
  • 2 cups sliced cabbage
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 slices Italian bread, torn into 1-inch pieces (1 cup)
  • ¼ cup pine nuts
  • 1 15.5-oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Directions
  1. Heat 2 Tbs. oil in pot over medium heat. Add rice, and sauté 6 minutes, or until toasted, stirring occasionally. Stir in garlic and rosemary, and cook 2 minutes more. Add broth, cabbage, and bay leaf; cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 10 minutes.
  2. Pulse bread and pine nuts in food processor until small crumbs form.
  3. Heat remaining 1 Tbs. oil in skillet over medium heat. Add breadcrumb mixture, and sauté 5 minutes, or until breadcrumbs are crisp and toasted.
  4.  Add beans to soup, and cook 5 minutes more, or until rice is tender. Remove bay leaf, and stir in breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
*I skipped the pine nuts and breadcrumbs because my blender was on the fritz I kind of screwed the recipe up though. I mis-read the directions and cooked the rice by itself first and I made too much! So instead of  soup I ended up with beans and rice lol. It tasted pretty good but it wasn’t my favorite.
  But every time I make something whether or not it turns out good, I learn something new. With this recipe I discovered Arborio rice. It has a fabulous creamy texture and it tastes really great. I learned that it is the base of some risottos…so the process wasn’t a complete loss. What was your last recipe mishap?   Connect with Sporty Afros!
By GabbaGab 0 comment

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