Quick Sausage, Broccoli and Red Pepper Rice
When you need dinner on the table quickly and you want it to be delicious and nutritious, this rice dish is perfect! It’s ready in a half hour! It’s also good anytime, not only when time is of the essence! And the flavours mix together beautifully. Change it up every time if you wish with different veggie combos.
This recipe uses brown minute rice - you can use instant rice as well or a package of cooked rice – it’s this quick rice that makes this recipe, well, quick to have on the table!
I love broccoli as it is a source of protein and fiber, contains potassium, calcium, selenium, magnesium, and iron, and a multitude of vitamins: A, E, C, K, and B vitamins.
Onions are members of the same allium family. Onions contain VitC, Vit B6, Manganese as well as other minerals and vitamins in lesser amounts, they are an antioxidant and they support the building of collagen in the body.
Bell Peppers are an antioxidant, low in calories, rich in vitamin C, especially the red ones, VitE, VitA, folate, and potassium.
Brown Minute Rice – minute rice is regular brown rice that is cooked to JUST before being done, so that’s why it takes much shorter a time to cook. Yes it is processed but the good news is that brown minute rice is not that nutritionally different than if you cooked brown rice! Brown Minute Rice contains fiber (more than white rice), a range of B vitamins and magnesium.
As always, when you make this recipe, please post a photo of your Quick Sausage, Broccoli and Red Pepper Rice goodness and tag my IG account #RenataCollective or leave a comment with your thoughts!
Prep Time: 10 minutes / Cook Time: 20 minutes / Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
3 Garlic Cloves – sliced and left to sit to release their nutritional magic
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Large Cooking Onion - diced
6 Mild Italian Sausages – casing removed and broken up into small pieces
1½ Cups Broccoli – cut into florets
1 Medium Red Bell Pepper – seeded and diced
2 Cups Brown Minute Rice - uncooked
2 Cups Veggie Bouillon
1/3 Cup Fresh Parsley or Lovage Leaves – chopped (I grow lovage in my herb garden!)
2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar – (missing in photo!)
A Pinch of Herbamare or Sea Salt and a Few Grinds of Fresh Pepper
How It’s Made
Slice the garlic and set aside to form its nutritional magic while you pre the other veggies and ingredients.
Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan.
Add in the onion and sauté for a couple of minutes, then add the sausage – I cut down the length of the sausage casing with a sharp knife then push out smallish pieces of sausage right into the pan. Sauté and stir the sausage and onion until the sausage is cooked through and onions are golden brown. This should take 5-10 minutes depending on the heat you are cooking with.
Next, add the garlic, broccoli and the red pepper and, stirring, sauté for 3-5 minutes, until the veggies have softened slightly.
Next, add the rice and then the veggie bouillon, give it a good stir to incorporate the rice into the veggies and cook, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes until the rice is tender and there is no liquid in the pan. You may need to adjust the heat to a slightly lower heat – you want the liquid simmering but not boiling until it is absorbed into the rice and veggies.
Add the parsley (or lovage), the balsamic vinegar, a pinch of Herbamare (or sea salt), a few grinds of fresh pepper and give the mixture a good stir. Turn off the heat.
With a clean spoon, give the dish a taste and add more pepper or salt as you see you might need it.
Serve in a pretty bowl!
Enjoy!
