Arabian nutty rice

This recipe has recently become one of my favourites. It's a spicy Arabian nutty rice, a Saudi Arabian national dish, and I found the recipe in A Lebanese Feast of Vegetables, Pulses, Herbs and Spices by Mona Hamadeh (p. 196-197). It's quite a simple yet very tasty recipe. 

I altered the recipe in the book slightly, so here's my version of it. Actually when I made this for the first time I accidentally doubled the amount of the spices, but even that didn't seem to hurt.

Ingredients

350 g rice

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 carrots

1 red bell pepper

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp Lebanese spice mix

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

100 g almond flakes

50 g cashew nuts

30 g pine nuts

Method

First of all some of this Lebanese spice mix is needed that I have previously posted.

Soak the rice in water for at least 30 minutes.

Chop the onion, garlic, carrots and bell pepper.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and start cooking the chopped onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes and add the carrots and pepper. Then also add the spices.

Drain the rice and add it to the pan, cover with water and simmer under the lid.

In the meanwhile toast the nuts and almonds in a frying pan with a little oil.

Once the rice has cooked, add the nuts to the dish and enjoy!

Your VegHog