Food

One-pot Moussaka beef rice pilaf

May 23, 2024

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Right here’s an ideal new beef mince recipe to strive! Assume – Greek Moussaka flavours, in risotto kind in a helpful one-pot recipe. Eggplant, beef, tomato, plenty of garlic and oregano. Cosy. Simple. Satisfying. Totally scrumptious!

Moussaka beef rice pilaf - one pot ground beef and rice recipe

One-pot Moussaka beef and rice

Consider at the moment’s recipe as a cross between moussaka and risotto. However a lot simpler to make than each of them!

It channels moussaka vibes with eggplant and beef mince cooked in a red-wine tomato sauce, heavy on the garlic and oregano (Greece approves!). And it’s acquired the hallmarks of an ideal risotto, with the juicy, oozy rice. By no means stodgy, by no means mushy.

It’s not genuine something. However it’s very, very tasty, and a very helpful one-pot meal for these occasions once you need one thing simple to make that’s filling, cosy and a little bit bit completely different. As a result of – what do you imply you’ve by no means cooked rice with eggplant earlier than?? It really works so nicely! Eggplant is a sponge for flavour. It soaks up all that garlicky, tomatoey, beefy flavour that bursts in your mouth once you bit into a chunk!

Eggplant cubes for Moussaka beef rice pilaf - one pot ground beef and rice recipe

Substances in Moussaka Beef Rice Pilaf

Right here’s what it’s worthwhile to make this Moussaka(ish) pilaf:

Eggplant

One eggplant round 20 cm / 8″ lengthy, weighing round 300g/10 oz. It’s advantageous if it’s a little bit bigger or smaller. I’ve made this with an eggplant 500g/1 lb huge and it labored nice and elevated the quantity of the dish.

Different vegetable choices – Using eggplant on this recipe is what provides it moussaka vibes, although you possibly can completely use different greens. Zucchini (courgettes) instantly springs to thoughts, being an analogous juicy vegetable (make sure you minimize them pretty giant in order that they don’t get too tender), as does pumpkin and huge items of tomato.

For the meat pilaf

Beef – I’m utilizing beef right here however lamb is equally as scrumptious. Hen, turkey and pork additionally work however gained’t style as “Greek”! 🙂
Rice – I like basmati as a result of it has a stunning perfume that I believe fits this dish, and it holds up nicely to this one-pot fashion of cooking, in contrast to, for instance, jasmine rice which will get too tender and mushy (in my humble rice-snob opinion). Lengthy grain and medium grain rice will also be used. Quick grain rice and sushi rice will work however will not be my first alternative as they will get a little bit softer than preferrred.

Rice to keep away from – This recipe as written shouldn’t be appropriate for brown rice, risotto rice, paella rice, wild rice, black rice, quinoa or fake rice (cauliflower rice!). It may be made to work however the recipe will want changes to order of cooking, liquid portions and so forth.
Chickpeas – I added this on the final minute as a result of it provides some good texture into what’s in any other case an enormous pot of 1 dimensional tender texture. It additionally bulks it up utilizing a low-GI starch that may maintain you feeling full for longer – win, win!
Garlic – 4 huge cloves! Greece would have a coronary heart assault if we didn’t use garlic!
Dried oregano – One other ingredient used recurrently in Greek cooking.
Onion – Important flavour base.
Pinot noir or different dry pink wine – This may add a contact of additional depth of flavour into the dish, but it surely’s not the top of the world in case you skip it.
Tomato paste and crushed tomato – For good tomatoey flavour!
Hen inventory/broth – Higher than water. Low salt please! For those who solely have full salt, cut back the salt within the dish by 1/2 teaspoon or so.

The way to make this one pot beef rice pilaf

Lower the eggplant into 1.5cm / 3/5″ cubes. I don’t peel eggplant as a result of I haven’t encountered bitter pores and skin or flesh points (largely bred out of recent eggplants). In case you are involved, sprinkle the eggplant with 1/4 teaspoon salt and go away in a colander for half-hour to sweat bitterness out. Pat off the surplus water then proceed with the recipe.
Sauté the onion and garlic in a big pot, then prepare dinner the meat, breaking it up as you go, till you not see pink.

Bloom flavours – Subsequent, add the oregano and salt and prepare dinner the meat for a superb minute. This may make the oregano flavour bloom. Then add the tomato paste and prepare dinner that for 1 minute too. Don’t shortcut this step! It cooks out the uncooked bitter flavour of tomato paste and sweetens it, in addition to including extra flavour into the meat.
Eggplant and rice – Add the eggplant and toss to coat nicely in all of the juicy beef. Combine till all of the cubes are coated and alter from white to pink. Then add the rice and blend it by as nicely.

Cooking broth – Add the chickpeas, tomato, inventory, salt and pepper. Give it a superb stir and convey the liquid to a simmer..
Steam rice 20 minutes – Wait till there are bubbles throughout the complete floor, not simply across the fringe of the pot. Put the lid on, flip the warmth all the way down to medium low (or low, in case your range is powerful) and let the rice steam for 20 minutes. No peeking, no stirring!

Relaxation 10 minutes – On the 20 minute mark, take a fast peek to make sure the liquid has been principally absorbed. There’ll nonetheless be a layer of thick tomato on the floor which is ok. Take the pot off the range and let it relaxation for 10 minutes with the lid on. Throughout this time, the rice will end cooking and take up the remaining liquid. By no means, ever skip resting rice!! It’s important!
Serve – Take away the lid, stir by some chopped parsley. Then divide between bowls and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and pinch of additional parsley. Dig in with a spoon!

YUM. That’s one nice bowl of cosy deliciousness. And an entire meal at that with virtually 1 kg / 2 lb of greens (eggplant + canned tomatoes + onion, sure, onion completely counts), protein and starch.

Nice served plain, as pictured above, however a dollop of yogurt wouldn’t go astray both (which I added yesterday after I made this for a workforce lunch). And no person would say no to some heat flatbreads for dunking! – Nagi x