Well, hello there. So it’s been a while, and my first recipe back is…rice with green beans? No wonder it took me so long to get back into this.
13-22: Green Bean Pilaf is exactly what it sounds like–a rice side dish with green beans that you could serve next to some sort of (presumably meat-based) main dish. It’s advertised as being vegetarian, but I feel that’s just by “default” since there’s no chunks of visible meat in it.
Man, does Simply Delicious enjoy their tarragon. It doesn’t seem like tarragon is super popular in modern dishes–is that because it’s not useful or because we don’t think of it as a relevant ingredient? Deep herb-related thoughts to consider on this Thursday afternoon. 🤔
See, this is the kind of stuff you have to watch out for if you are ACTUALLY trying to eat vegetarian–meat-based broths being used in “vegetarian” dishes. I’ve had to pass up on a lot of delicious-looking “vegetarian” food in the last few years because of this.
Also of note: the address posted on the bottom of the card. I’ve never seen one with an address before, and I’ve got a long history with these books. This is a “new book” recipe though, so that’s probably why. If you Google the address, it comes up to some big corporate-looking building in downtown Pittsburgh that probably used to house whoever the publisher was of these books. Maybe I should send them a letter and see what happens?
Ingredients. I’ve swapped the suggested chicken broth for vegan “chicken” broth (vegetable would work too if you don’t have this stuff) and the butter for a vegan “butter” stick. With those two easy swaps, now this recipe is not only TRULY vegetarian (and gluten-free!), it’s also vegan. Doesn’t make it much more exciting, but it does make it much more accessible with not a lot of extra work.
Yet another picture of onion chopping.
They don’t tell you to remove the mushroom stems before slicing, but I always do. I find the stems to be too woody for my taste, even though they are technically edible.
All the prepared vegetables. I was also making 9-8: Mushroom Beef Patties to accompany the pilaf, so I did all my mushrooms at once.
Sautéing the mushrooms and onion.
Adding in the dried tarragon.
I usually prefer to make rice in a rice cooker (so much easier), but I’ll do it on the stove since that’s the point of this whole thing.
After browning the rice, but before adding in the broth.
Blanching my (trimmed) green beans.
I didn’t show you adding the broth/simmering, but here’s the after results.
Folding in the blanched green beans.
Giving it a few final stirs to meld all the flavors together.
This was part of a meal prep, so as I mentioned before, I paired it with 9-8: Mushroom Beef Patties. Lots of mushroom. And those aren’t really beef–it’s Impossible “meat”.
Topped with the mushroom gravy and ready for a weekday lunch or dinner. While it’s not the most exciting meal, it’s probably somewhat healthier than most of what you’ve been eating lately. Remember, it’s good to eat your veggies!
Grade: B+
