Green Rice with Grapes and Pecans

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon salt, or more if needed
  • 1⁄4 cup olive oil
  • 6 green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
  • 1⁄2 (packed) cup fresh parsley
  • 2 cups rice, cooked (So you should have 2 cups of rice before cooking.)  
  • 2 cups red seedless grapes, halved
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted

Instructions

  1. Blend garlic, lemon juice, maple syrup, salt, oil, green onions, and parsley together with an immersion blender until smooth.  
  2. Toss dressing, rice, grapes, and pepper together in large bowl.  
  3. Cover tightly and chill well before serving.  Stir in pecans immediately before serving.  

Comments

If desired, feel free to add lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh mint, or chopped apples.  

This recipe is from Serious Eats and comes from Mollie Katzen’s newest cookbook.  I love Katzen - one of my very first cookbooks as an adult was her Still Life with Menu and I’ve acquired the rest of her books over the years.  Although I don’t have this one yet since I’m trying to cut back on buying cookbooks that don’t fit my foodstyle.  

It was awesome.  The grapes were amazing bursts of flavor and the pecans were nice and crunchy.  Lots of fantastic and contrasting textures and flavors that all magically worked well together.  However, I think the guys didn’t love this as much as I did.  Their loss!