Let’s talk fall. I’ve already mentioned that I have mixed feelings about fall. I mean fall started and I instantly caught a cold. Which turned into an upper respiratory infection that I had for all of October. Gross.
But fall also has football [I’m at the point of the season where the Bears just make me sad] and hockey [Go Blackhawks!]. And pretty leaves. And sometimes nice weather [Being in Indy that means we have three days of mid 60s and then seven days of mid 30s. Reason for the cold I mentioned above.
But I thought that this year, I would give fall flavors a chance. Like sweet potato. And butternut squash. But not pumpkin. I’m one of those weird people who does not like pumpkin. #notbasic
Pretty Spinach from the Farmers Market. Which went into the rice.
This rice is very high on the fall flavor list. Which is probably why I’m still undecided on it. I mean, it definitely is high in flavor but I don’t think its one of my flavors. Summary: Still not a fall person. Maybe the soup I’ll be posting about this Thursday will do the trick.
Sweet Potato and Kale Rice
Recipe From Iowa Girl Eats
The Stuff
- 1 cup a rice blend and 2 cups chicken broth to cook it in [I used brown rice instead of the wild rice the original recipe calls for since I’m not the biggest fan of it]
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 sweet potato chopped into cubes
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- a lot of chopped kale, about 4 cups. I used half kale and half spinach since it is what I had on hand.
- Here the original author had 1/4 cup pepitas which is toasted pumpkin seeds. I didn’t look to hard to find it so I didn’t put them in. But the rice does need an extra crunch so I would recommend finding them. [I used sunflower seeds from my works salad bar and that added a good crunch]
The Topping/Sauce [Maple Dijon Vinaigrette:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar [I didn’t have any on hand so I used red wine vinegar instead. It probably would have tasted better if I used the correct vinegar]
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt and pepper
The Steps
1. Prepare the Rice with the chicken broth.
2. Mix up the ingredients for the Maple-Dijon Vinaigrette.
The Sauce Stuff
Mixing!
3. Next chop up all your kale/spinach. Then skin your sweet potato and chop into cubes.
Yummy
All chopped up!
4. Next boil the kale/spinach for 4-5 minutes. Drain, and then when its cool squeeze out the excess water.
This is all I had after the spinach/kale was drained of water.
5. In the now drained skillet, melt butter and add the brown sugar and sweet potatoes. Salt them and saluted until caramelized about 8-10 minutes. MAKE SURE TO watch your potatoes. Otherwise they might burn on you. See picture below for an example.
Pre-burning.
Burnt not 5 minutes later 😦
6. Add the kale/spinach, cooked rice and vinaigrette to the skillet and combine. Add your crunch factor here.
And that’s how you get fall in your mouth. I gave the recipe a 2 on my rocket science scale because I burned my potatoes and the recipe really does need a crunch factor (which I didn’t have the first night I made it). It also takes longer than expected to put everything together.
About 50 minutes to cook from start to finish.
Happy Cooking!
Annnnd it’s gone.
