Adapted from Ottolenghi’s cheesy baked rice with okra and tomato recipe, out of the Comfort cookbook, mine is a slightly lighter, no okra version but every bit as delicious.
Baking rice
If you struggle to cook your rice perfectly, don’t steam or boil it but bake it. It is definitely the most foolproof method.
Basically, I think that’s how rice cookers work, by keeping the rice enclosed for the whole cooking time (that’s why you must not peek when cooking it traditionally in the pan), at a stable temperature, with no loss of steam or moisture.
Oven does that very well, plus there’s no mess on the hob, frequent when bringing the rice in the pan to the boil.
And oven-baking works for brown as well as white rice.
How to cook brown vs white rice?
I usually get a 10 kilo bag of brown rice from an Asian supermarket as it will keep for ever and is without question the best value. So even if a recipe calls for white rice, I simply substitute my brown basmati.
Nutritionally, it’s a no brainer. Brown rice is a whole grain, with three times as much fibre as white, more vitamins and minerals and actually marginally fewer carbs and overall calories. White rice is a processed food (though not ultra-processed, unless turned into Rice Crispies) and it’s only more beneficial than brown for people with digestive issues as it’s easier on the stomach.
Contrary to what you might think, it’s not more difficult to cook, it only needs longer. Its rice-to-water ratio is roughly 1:1¾ and if you forget the exact proportions just make sure you cook it twice as long as you would white rice.
Dish of two layers
This recipe is a very clever dish consisting of the baked, fragrant rice topped with a layer of vegetable medley. The okra from the original recipe is substituted with flat green beans here, with Mr Ottolenghi’s explicit permission. I don’t like okra and I know a lot of people feel the same.
The chunky vegetable sauce is cooked separately while the rice bakes, making it quite an involved but not stressful recipe. Combined, with the sauce spread over the rice, it is topped with a cheesy crust briefly baked again, to make the topping crispy.
It is so delicious, it really doesn’t call for a protein addition but if you like, you could serve it alongside flaky, hot smoked salmon or slices of roast chicken.
How to bake the rice?
It benefits from half an hour’s soak in cold water, to make it fluffier and less sticky.
Then it’s drained and covered with boiling water, with the additions of a couple of whole cloves, a whole cinnamon stick, some butter and a bit of salt and pepper. To the oven it goes, tightly covered with a lid or a double layer of foil. If you’re using white rice, it will take 25 minutes to bake and for brown – 40.
Out of the oven it needs to stand still covered for ten minutes before fluffing up.
How to make the vegetable sauce?
It wouldn’t be an Ottolenghi recipe without some apparently superfluous, cheffy elements. That’s half the amount of tomatoes and beans charred and blistered in a dry hot pan, which return to the sauce at the very end.
The rest is pretty straightforward. It starts with onions cooking until nicely caramelised, then adding all the aromatics and spices.
The other half of cherry tomatoes and flat beans, respectively halved and chopped, are added at this stage, followed by the liquids. That can be chicken or vegetable stock but even if you use water, the dish will still be tasty.
The sauce now cooks for fifteen minutes, with the charred beans and blistered tomatoes going in after that time, to soften during the final ten minutes. Make sure the sauce is thick enough to sit on top of the rice instead of seeping through and making it soggy.
The topping is grated Cheddar mixed with breadcrumbs and a little butter, and it turns lovely and crunchy in the final fifteen minutes of oven time.
Hacks and shortcuts
I strongly believe the recipe will work at its best when followed to the letter, but once you’ve tried the real thing, you might want to cut some corners on a weeknight.
Which means you can cook the rice in a rice cooker, adding some butter and seasoning. One step further, use leftover cold rice and merely heat it up with the sauce.
Give the cheffy charring and blistering a miss and simply chop everything up to cook up the sauce.
And finally, you can swap the beans for mushrooms, fresh spinach, broccoli florets or frozen peas, the last added at the very end.
More Ottolenghi recipes
Roasted beetroot salad with preserved lemons and tahini flavoured yoghurt has all the hallmarks of an Ottolenghi recipe and rightly so: it comes from the 'Simple' cookbook.
Feta and za’atar scones baked in a tin to pull apart are the best savoury scones, with fluffy crumb like a proper English tearoom classic but suffused with Middle Eastern flavour of za’atar: oregano, thyme, sumac and sesame seed.
Oven cooked chicken shawarma, fragrant with spices, is made from chicken thigh pieces marinated overnight and threaded on skewers. Serve with a warm flatbread for the home-cooked equivalent of beloved Middle Eastern street food.
More baked rice recipes
Charleston red rice is a wonderful dish of oven baked rice with bacon and tomato purée, flavoured with Cajun seasoning. A descendant of West African jollof rice, this dish is older than the United States!
Oven baked rice with brown shrimp and green vegetables, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the centre. Perfect rice without fail, inspired by Diana Henry’s recipe.
Persian baked rice with a crispy tahdig layer at the bottom. The easiest method for perfect Middle Eastern rice with crispy bottom layer is to bake it in the oven - gorgeous every time!