Herbed Rice

A and I have always loved herbed rice, especially herbed white and wild rice, but as we ate fewer and fewer convenience/processed foods and less salt, the store bought mixes were just too salty and too pricey. Then one day while searching for gift in a jar ideas, I found herbed rice mix in a jar directions. That was 8 years ago, and I haven't bought a commercial mix since.

Luckily, S loves herbed white and wild rice and will eat two adult servings for his dinner, and he calls it mixed up rice because he helps to mix it all up when we make a new jar of it. Another nice bonus is that I can grow most of the ingredients other than the rice and dry them to use in this recipe, and I can make my own homemade stock to use in the recipe. This is flexible enough that you can make it vegan or not, make it less expensive by increasing the amount of white rice in the ratio, make it more gourmet by using all wild rice. This is an awesome recipe and goes as a great side dish with many foods. Tonight we're having it with barbeque chicken, grilled pineapple slices, and steamed green beans. I use the mix in my chicken rice soup. There's a sausage rice dish in the crockpot that uses it too. What an awesome pantry item!

Herbed Rice Mix
*note: for the 3 lb of rice, mix and match rice types, just making sure that the cooking time matches. Use all brown rice with a cooking time of 45 minutes, all white rice for 25 minutes, brown rice and regular wild rice for 45 minutes, or white rice and fast cooking wild rice for 25 minutes. The wild rice is pricey, so when money is tight, I use 2 lb white rice and 1 lb fast cooking wild rice. When money is flowing in our house, it's more of a 50/50 ratio.

3 lb long grain rice
2 c. dried celery leaves/flakes
2/3 c. dried minced onion
1/2 c. dried parsley
2 T dried chives
2 T dried tarragon
Mix all the ingredients together and place  in an airtight container. Makes 40 servings.
To serve:
Each serving is 2/3 c. water, stock or broth and 1/4 c. rice mix. Bring the liquid to a boil in a saucepan that has a lid, add the rice, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and let it cook for 25 minutes for white and fast cooking wild rice, 45 minutes for brown rice and regular wild rice. Serve.

This is so easy and delicious, and you can change the herbs and rices to suit your taste and your needs!