Black rice with roasted vegetables and halloumi

I have been fancying unusual coloured food lately, especially black, which is slightly weird for the spring season. Anyhow, I saw this black rice at my local health food shop and was curious to try it. I planned for me quite a typical weekday meal around it and here are the results. I made a black rice dish with roasted bell peppers and plum tomatoes and fried halloumi. I liked it very much and will surely be making similar dishes in the future.

Ingredients

2 bell peppers

250 g baby plum tomatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup black rice

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

250 g halloumi

½ tbsp vegetable oil for frying

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp chilli flakes

Method

I cooked everything separately first: Roasted the bell pepper and baby plum tomatoes in the oven; boiled the black rice in water with vegetable stock powder; fried the halloumi cubes in vegetable oil and then combined them. Here are more detailed instructions.

Cut the bell peppers into coarse pieces and brush them and the tomatoes with olive oil. Roast in the oven until they have distinct roasting marks. I did the roasting in separate dishes, as the tomatoes can come out of the oven a bit earlier.

Cook the black rice in water with added vegetable stock powder. Fry the halloumi cubes in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Start cooking the finely chopped shallots and garlic in olive oil. Then add the rice, roasted tomatoes and spices to it. Cook until the flavours have blended nicely and the rice is fully cooked.

Serve together with the roasted bell peppers (which can also be mixed in, I just didn't want them to turn purple for the presentation) and halloumi.

What do you think, does black or weird coloured food appeal to you or rather not? I wouldn't always want to have it, but it can be a nice change.

Your VegHog