Vegans eat rice, right? Of course. Everyone loves rice. It’s seen as a low-calorie carb that is easy to digest and won’t cause weight gain. I’ve been experimenting with healthy cooking in order to load up on fruits and veggies, increase energy, slim down, and just overall, be a healthier me. So, I started this dish off with rice. In this case, lots and lots of rice because I always make the mistake of adding too much rice whenever I make anything (I’m not really into measuring). So, naturally, I ended up with enough rice to feed eight people. (Which definitely makes me sad, but I will talk more about how I countered this overcooking  to make healthy eating easier on my life to maintain.)

This is an easy dish. I added plenty of water to a pan, which I put on high and waited to heat. I then added rice to this and olive oil (to prevent sticking). I season the rice (which some people think is odd, but I do because it’s tasty *shrugs*). While that was cooking, I cut up broccoli, tomatoes, avocado, and onions and added them to the rice (so everything can cook in a single pan.)

One of the things you’ll notice about tomatoes is that they tend to fall apart and liquify, adding more moisture to the rice and giving your dish a nice tomato flavor. I like this aspect of using tomatoes because it is a low-calorie way to flavor and moisturize your food to avoid burning. I also cook with a heavy hand of olive oil. I made a similar dish several days ago in which the end result was more of a tomato soup with rice and olive oil which turned out to be amazing. Also, you’ll want to stir around the avocado to avoid smashing and blending it into the rice (which will coat your entire dish with an avocado flavor. Which is totally up to you and depends on how much you like avocado. I’ve done both and both are tasty, but having a bowl of green rice is not exactly visually appealing which is why I opted to keep the avocado in cut up slices instead of mixing it in this time.)

I like to cook this until the broccoli is easy to stab with a fork, but as it is safe to eat any of these veggies raw, your top concern will be making sure you’ve cooked the rice to your liking.

If only this would cook faster, but I don’t want to burn it. It’s the broccoli. It’s a very dense veggie.

Be sure to let this cool for several minutes before digging in. By the time I was finished, I was sure that I was figuratively starving to death. Allowing it to cool a bit will give you a thicker, more satisfying rice (that won’t burn you).