The Rice is Wild!

See merchandise with this design at

http://www.printfection.com/compugraphd/Other/_s_357110

B"H

I thought it would be nice to tell you all how it is that I go through the process of coming up with a new recipe (well, at least the sort of recipe I get by getting ideas from other recipes).

Today, I had a bit of extra time with nothing much to do and no one to compete with for the kitchen, so I decided I was going to try two recipes from last month's issue of Prevention.

One was a recipe listed in an article in the August 2010 issue where they collected "no-cook" recipes from readers. For me this was not exactly "no-cook" since it called for onions and I have a reaction to raw onions (I can't even touch raw onions, so I wear plastic gloves when I peel and chop onions) so I sauteed the onion in a bit of olive oil (I have an oil spray). I used some of the onions for the other recipe, too, but I'll talk about that later. This was a recipe for Chilled Cucumber-Avocado Soup. It called for 2 unpeeled cucumbers, 2 avocados, a cup of vegetable broth (I used filtered water), 2/3 cup each yogurt and milk (I used 1 1/3 cups almond "milk"), a couple of tablespoons chopped onion (that's where I used the sauteed onions), a tablespoon lemon juice (I just used the juice of one nice sized lemon), chopped mint (I used fresh basil), a teaspoon of vinegar -- I used white wine vinegar. I skipped the "pinch of cayenne". I pureed the whole business in a food processor (it didn't puree smoothly -- there are still some lumps, but it's good).

The second recipe I made was Spanish Style Rice Salad. But, since I'm not a huge fan of rice, I used 1 cup wild rice (which I love and use often) -- cooked about 45 minutes in 2 to 2 1/2 cups filtered water. I also used half the olive oil, basil instead of oregano, used a mix of white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar, used 1 container of orange cherry tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes, 1 small can (drained) sliced black olives instead of 1/4 cup pimiento stuffed olives, sliced, used 1/2 the olive oil (1/8 cup instead of 1/4 cup), and didn't add garlic (I would have sauteed that also, with the onions, if I had had some in the house). I cooked the wild rice, let it cool, added the cooled chopped onion, quartered the tomatoes, chopped up the cucumber, dumped in the can of black olives, chopped up the basil, added the oil and the vinegar, and mixed it all together until the ingredients were mixed well. I put it in a container to put in the refrigerator.

I liked the way both of these recipes came out and I think I'll try them again.

Check out my other blogs:

Israel and it's Place in the World
Jewish Singles
Strong Jewish Women

Check out some of my squidoo lenses (articles):

Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Why Be Vegetarian
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 1
Vegetarianism: Getting Started 2
Why be Vegetarian?
Rosh Hashana
Quick Vegan Cooking
Creating new recipes from old
Hanuka
About the Jewish Calendar
Witches and Morality
Math Hints 1 -- Adding Fractions
Presidents1: George Washington