Don’t throw away your leftover rice! – Pumpkin and kale rice with a middle eastern twist

Hey there!

Who doesn’t know the situation of ordering Thai food one night and then ending up with a ton of leftover rice yet no sauces to go along with them to have another Thai night the following day. I’m sure you’ve all experienced seeing the lonely container of white rice in the far back of your fridge and your thinking to yourself what on earth should I do with this dry bunch of tiny white grains.

You could order some more Thai and just don’t ask for rice. You could also prepare your own Thai curry or by all means any other curry would work as well. Yet sometimes one just doesn’t fancy having an Asian night twice in a row. Well guess what I came up with a prefect dish for exactly this situation. I am again relying on flavours of a foreign cuisine though this time we’re going down South instead of eastward. I also included some key ingredients of the current season. Kale and Pumpkin a heavenly combination and especially tasty with the Moroccan flavours I went for today. I added the classic cumin as well as paprika. Then I topped it all with a delicious tahini lemon dressing to give it a little zing.

So to all of you people who have been throwing away the leftover rice from that recent takeaway night now you haven’t got an excuse anymore to carry on the way you did. You can surely make use of it by creating this amazingly delicious rice dish.

Anyways let’s move on to the recipe.

makes enough for three

• 1 small pumpkin (approx.400-450g)
• 2 kale leaves
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 130g cooked basmati rice (can be substituted with any other rice)
• 100g cooked chickpeas
• 1tsp cumin
• 1tsp paprika
• ½ pomegranate
• 2tbs chopped and peeled almonds
• salt
• olive oil
• 2tbs finely chopped parsley

for the tahini lemon dressing

• 1tbs tahini
• 1tbs soy yoghurt
• ½ lemon
• 2 tbs water

1. First of all cut your pumpkin in cubes and roast at 180°C for around 25 minutes or until soft and tender. I drizzled mine with olive oil and sprinkled it with salt before roasting it yet you could also use leftover roasted pumpkin and it won’t be a problem if you added any other herbs or spices.
2. While your roasting your pumpkin you can already finely chop up your onion and garlic and finely slice the kale leaves and deseed your pomegranate.
3. Now toast your almonds in a pan until slightly browned. Remove them from the pan and put aside for later
4. By now your pumpkin should be tender and you can continue to put your dish together. Pour some olive oil into a frying pan and add the onion, garlic, cumin and paprika. Fry over medium heat until the onion has softened.
5. Add the rice, pumpkin cubes, chickpeas and finely sliced kale stir and cover with a lid for approximately 15 minutes or until your kale has wilted completely. Lower the heat to medium low to avoid your meal from burning.
6. While your kale is wilting and the flavours are coming together juice your lemon and add the juice, tahini, soy yoghurt and water into a bowl and mix until well combined.
7. When your kale has wilted mix the whole thing again and add salt to taste. Serve with the tahini dressing drizzled over top and top with the pomegranate seeds, toasted almonds and the finely chopped parsley.

Voila that was it. You just created an amazing dish out of a cup of leftover rice and a bunch of delicious and seasonal ingredients. I truly love simple dishes like this. They hardly involve any work and the outcome is just amazingly delicious. I consider meals like this to be the perfect weeknight dinners when you want something quick, easy yet incredibly tasty.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy pumpkin season (yep you guessed it I’ve got a bunch of pumpkin recipes coming your way)

Bisous