One of my favorite things to make is Mexican food. I like to cook, so most of my mexican meals are accompanied by beans (black beans or pintos), rice, and a salad with cabbage, radishes and a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of lime juice. I don’t always make all of the sides. In the past I would often end up buying a box of rice with seasoning to take care of the rice component. Now I usually make my own arroz verde or arroz rojo.

If you have leftover beans, carnitas, carne asada or anything of that sort put it in a burrito with some arroz verde and it seems like a whole different meal. You could also serve arroz verde with chorizo and eggs or chile rellenos. As a matter of fact, for chile rellenos I use the same kind of chiles I use for the sofrito: poblanos.

Poblano Chiles ~ photo by Ella Schwab

The thing that makes this recipe so good is the sofrito and it doesn’t take that long to make. The sofrito is the puree of chiles, onions, parsley and cilantro. You can buy sofrito from the grocery store, but it would be a very different thing – kind of like the boxed mexican rice.

Sofrito ~ photo by Ella Schwab

Arroz Verde
Makes 8 Servings

Arroz Verde ~ photo by Ella Schwab

Ingredients

2 poblano chiles seeds and pith removed, chopped
1 serrano chile chopped
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup cilantro chopped
2 green onions, leave out the upper green parts
1/4 cup of water
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 1/2 cups of rice
2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 lime cut in half

Procedure

1. Place chiles, garlic, parsley, cilantro, green onions and water in the blender and puree.
2. Add the oil and butter to a medium sized sauce pan with a tight fitting lid. Turn the heat to medium-high. When the butter starts to get bubbly add the rice and stir so that every grain is coated. Continue to cook the rice until it turns a light golden brown color.
3. Add the sofrito to the pan and stir. Cook for about one minute.
4. Add the chicken broth, stir and bring the mixture back to a simmer. Put the lid on the pan and turn the heat down to low. Let the rice cook until all the liquid is absorbed.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then fluff the rice with a fork and squeeze the lime juice into the rice. Mix well and serve.