Shrimp and Veggie Rice

There's nothing special about this dish except the fact that the DDH liked it.

(He doesn't like rice, usually.)

It's really a Reality Dinner: last minute, fast, cheap. Nothing was homegrown (except the garlic...I'm on my last head, too *cries*), I used boxed rice...nothing fancy or homemade at all, really.

Weirdly, one of my last-minute-dinner staples is shrimp. I stock up on bags of frozen cooked and peeled shrimp when they go on sale. They thaw more quickly than most meat, so they can go from freezer-to-table in a reasonable amount of time. And since they're pre-cooked, I can use them in hot or cold dishes, and I just have to warm them up rather than worrying that they're thoroughly cooked.

The only problem is that, for some reason, peeled shrimp still have the tails left on. So that's a pain, but at least the tails are good for the compost.

I have a rice problem. Meaning, I can't seem to cook it. I cook it for hours and hours (seemingly) and it stays stubbornly crunchy. Or it dissolves into mush. Brown rice is the worst, but white rice does the same thing about half the time.

Between that and the fact that the DDH doesn't care for it (he says he's always hungrier after he eats rice than before he ate it), I just don't make it much anymore.

But of course I have a lot of it kicking around my cupboard. Because it's cheap (note to self: buying things you don't use is not cheap, though as a consolation, dried rice has brought my cell phone back from the dead more than once). -_-

Anyway. A few months ago, someone gave me a boxed Spanish Rice Mix thing. Which, gross. NOT A FAN.

But, I discovered, the Spanish part was in a packet, and the rice itself was parboiled, which meant it would probably cook correctly and in less time than un-parboiled rice.

So I figured, what the heck. I tossed the Spanish spice package and made this instead.

Shrimp and Veggie Rice

De-tail your shrimps and let them thaw under running water or in the fridge while you do the rest of this (or make your DDH do it while you go to Zumba class).

Cook yourself some rice. I like to add 1 Tbs. butter to the water while bringing it to a boil. Then add your rice and cook until done. (If you have instant rice, you can skip this step and just boil it for five minutes when you add the broth below.)

In a separate pan, melt a bit of butter (or I used coconut oil). Add ~1/2 cup chopped onion and cook until soft, about three minutes. Add 3 cloves garlic, pressed and saute for about 30 seconds.

Add a bunch of frozen veggies. This was actually the end of my latest Giant Bag O' Frozen Veggies from Sam's Club, and this is a good use for all those tiny broccoli crumbs that gather at the bottom of those bags and are weird and don't get eaten when you just steam veggies by themselves.

Stir the veggies around, cover, and let them steam thaw for a minute.

While the veggies steamed, I mixed together 3/4 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp turmeric (though by all means, if you have saffron, use that), 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Toss that in, stirring.

Add ~1/2 pound shrimp and cook for another thirty seconds or so, until shrimps and veggies are hot.

At this point, you can either add two cups broth, 1 Tbs butter, and 2ish cups instant rice OR your pre-cooked rice. If the former, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes or until rice is done. If the latter, stir everything together til well mixed.

Serve.


It was good. Lots of veggies, tasty shrimps, actually-cooked rice. Nothing special; nothing, really, deserving of a blog post. Except that it was easy and filling and cheap and that's reality.