Hawaii-Style Spanish Rice
A filling ground beef and rice dinner is on the table in 30 minutes with the help of leftover rice.
Equipment
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 5 Quart pan or 11" chicken fryer or 5-quart dutch oven
- measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil or canola oil
- 1 onion diced
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 20 ounces lean ground beef
- 5 garlic cloves minced (about 2 ½ tsp)
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes unsalted
- ½ tsp salt (omit if using canned tomatoes with salt)
- 4 cups cold cooked brown rice
- 4 cheese slices
Instructions
- Put the oil in the pan and heat on medium-high heat.
- Add the onion and celery and cook for 3 to 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the ground beef and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain excess fat from pot using a paper towel and discard.
- Add the garlic, bell pepper, black pepper, and ground cumin and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt (if using), and rice. Lower heat to medium and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened to your liking.
- Put the slices of cheese on top of mixture. Cover pot, reduce heat to low, and warm through until cheese melts, about 1 minute.
Video
Notes
Tips and Tricks
Other protein options?
This will taste great with ground pork or ground turkey. If using ground chicken, add ¼ cup of water to the pot when cooking the ground chicken so it doesn’t get dry.
Do I have to use crushed tomatoes?
If crushed tomatoes are hard to find, you can use tomato sauce, tomato puree, or petite diced tomatoes. With petite diced tomatoes, increase the cooking time to 15 minutes to soften the tomatoes more and don’t add the rice until you have 10 minutes of cooking time left to avoid mushy rice.
Can I use freshly cooked rice?
Adding freshly cooked rice will result in mushy rice. If you want to add raw rice to this dish, cook the onion and celery for only 2 minutes, use 2 cups of raw medium grain rice and 2 ¼ cups of water and crushed tomatoes right after adding the garlic and bell pepper to the pot and omit the 2-to-3-minute cooking time. You will cook the dish on the stove, stirring occasionally, for 25 to 40 minutes, depending on the type of rice you use.