Tomato-Basil Rice

I came up with this recipe years ago, late one summer when I was getting tired of using the tomatoes and basil from my garden in pasta-based recipes. So I came up with this rice dish instead, and it turned out great! This is a great side for barbecued chicken and seafood. It’s another crowd-pleaser- everybody loves it.

I used hearts of palm in this recipe– Kristina found big jars of it cheap at Costco, so I added it to the recipe. It goes good in this recipe…hearts of palm taste similar to artichoke hearts. If you can’t find hearts of palm, don’t worry about it– I made this for years without adding that particular ingredient.

Ingredients:

• 14 oz. rice (Basmati works well for this)
• 2 medium size tomatoes, diced, or 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup basil leaves, chopped
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/2-1 green pepper, diced
• Any other peppers from your garden if you want it spicy, diced
• 28 oz. chicken stock, or 28 oz. total with liquid from tomatoes (total volume of liquid should be twice vol. of rice)
• Hearts of palm, diced up (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup shredded or grated parmesan cheese
• Salt, to taste
• Fresh ground pepper

Serves 3-4

Heat olive oil in a pot. Add onions, peppers and garlic and saute until they’re kinda softened up. Add chicken stock, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper and chopped basil leaves and get it boiling. Throw rice in, turn down to low and cover.

Rice will take about 20 minutes to cook. When rice has about 5 minutes left to cook, stir in the hearts of palm (if you’re adding them) and the parmesan cheese (this is not optional). Turn heat off and let it sit covered for 10 minutes for rice to finish absorbing liquid and for all flavors to combine. Enjoy!