This easy delicious recipe was adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbook Simple. I love this cookbook because every recipe is packs in so much flavor. This rice dish is so easy to make and full of pungent surprises. I finished this dish with Old Salt Merchant's hibiscus salt - a perfect finishing salt because it's sour & tart
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This succulent rice dish pairs really well with slow cooked lamb, pork or salmon. It's also a delicious side for roasted root vegetables. Great for a large dinner gathering and can be doubled to serve a group of 12.
Directions:
Salsa
½ cup walnut halves, lightly roasted and roughly broken ¾ cup pomegranate seeds (from about ½ large pomegranate)
1/2 cup pitted green olives thinly sliced
3 tbs olive oil
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup of mint leaves
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 garlic clove, crushed into a paste
Rice and Assembly
2 cups basmati rice 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted ¾ cyprus salt 10 mint sprigs
3 1/2 cups boiling water
5 ounces feta crumbed
ingredient Info
Pomegranate molasses can be found at Middle Eastern markets, some supermarkets, and online.
How to:
Pomegranate Relish
Place a rack in upper third of oven; preheat to 350°. Toast walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing once, until golden brown, 5–8 minutes. Let cool, then coarsely chop. Increase oven temperature to 450°.
Toss walnuts, pomegranate seeds, olives, oil, mint, parsley, pomegranate molasses, and garlic in a medium bowl to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Rice and Assembly
Combine rice, butter, and salt and lots of pepper in a 13x9" baking dish, then pour in the 3½ cups oiling water; top with mint sprigs. Cover tightly with foil and bake until rice is tender and water is absorbed, 25 minutes. Remove from oven; Fluff rice with a fork.
Heat broiler. Arrange feta over rice. Broil until rice around edges of pan is browned and crisp and feta is starting to brown, 8–10 minutes. Spoon pomegranate relish over.
Serves 6