Hot Greek Salad-ish
You know when you're craving salad... but you want it warm, and baked, and saucy, with cheese? Same. It's a hot Greek salad-ish.
Serves: 4
Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 cup grated zucchini
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
baby fist of chopped flat-leaf parsley (¼ cup obviously)
1/2 cup frozen kale
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
50g butter
1 cup short-grain white rice
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
60g taleggio cheese, sliced (or any other soft, oozy cheese, such as mozzarella or brie)
2 garlic cloves, extra, sliced
1 x 400g tin cherry tomatoes
1 Lebanese cucumber, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons kalamata olives
3 tablespoons chopped dill and mint (combined)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
METHOD
Imagine as I wrote this, I was in a race to finish in time to eat it. Go.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
In an ovenproof frying pan, fry the onion and zucchini in 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat for around 5 minutes, or until soft but not coloured.
Add the garlic, parsley and kale and saute for another 5 minutes, until combined and fragrant. Season to taste with salt.
Add the butter and rice, and stir until the rice is fully coated and the butter has melted. Pour in the stock and stir.
Put the whole pan in the oven for 20 minutes.
Place the taleggio on top and bake for another 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat another tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, and pan-fry the extra garlic for 2 minutes. Add the cherry toms and cook for another 3 minutes. This is called a passata party.
Toss together the cucumber, olives, dill, mint, vinegar and remaining tablespoon of oil.
Place the garlicky tomatoes and fresh salad on the baked rice.
Now, just forget the rules. Scoop and slide.
Hot, sticky, buttery greens rice, oozing warm taleggio, bouncy garlicky sweet toms and zingy bitey herby cold crunch. It's a hot Greek salad-ish.
HINTS
Frozen kale goes in straight from the freezer - it collapses obediently into the greens.
Tinned cherry tomatoes make the passata party properly saucy, but fresh ones work with an extra minute in the pan.
It's one pan, baby - just make sure that pan is genuinely ovenproof before it goes in at 200C.
NUTRITION (per recipe total, serves 4 - guide only):
Energy: approximately 8450kJ (2020 calories)
Protein: 40g
Fat: 105g
Saturated fat: 40g
Carbohydrates: 205g
Sugars: 25g
Fibre: 15g
Sodium: 3300mg
This nutrition information is a guide only and may vary depending on brands, exact quantities, and ingredient substitutions used.