Arroz à lavrador (farmer’s rice)

Farmer’s rice is a filling, nutritionally dense dish, thus the name. Oh, did I mention tasty? The original ‘arroz à lavrador’ usually has pork meat and sausages in it. However, beans, tomato and cabbage are some of the veggie ingredients that come into the mix too. With some alterations, this vegan version is just as good (well, tastier) and much better for you, for the planet and for the animals (duh!).

type: main

time: 45 min

difficulty: 1.5 pans

serves: 3-4

What you need:

1 cup white rice (brown works too, but takes longer to cook)

1 can mixed beans (in water)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 beef tomato, chopped

1/2 savoy cabbage cut into pieces

1 red pepper, chopped

1/2 aubergine cut into small chunks

1 carrot, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp chopped sun dried tomatoes

150ml plant cream (soya, oat, etc)

1.5 tbsp nutritional yeast

50g chopped walnuts

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1-2 tbsp green olives

olive oil

paprika, cumin and oregano

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups of water

Utensils:

knife and chopping board;

large pan and mixing spoon;

large baking tray;

small bowl

Directions:

Prepare all the veggies;

In a large pan, fry the onion, bay leaf and garlic in a little olive oil (or water) for 3 minutes;

Add all the other veggies (tomato, pepper, cabbage, aubergine, carrot and sun dried tomatoes) and sprinkle on top a generous amount of paprika, oregano and cumin, mixing well; let it cook for a few minutes in medium/low heat;

Add rice and beans, mix and add about 2 cups of boiling water- cook until rice is cooked (for white, about 15-20 minutes);

Meanwhile in a small bowl, mix cream with nutritional yeast;

Once rice is ready, add salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat. Transfer the rice into a baking tray and add the cream on top; Sprinkle walnuts, pumpkin seeds and green olives on top too;

Bake for about 15-20 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius;

Serve while hot with some extra greens on the side, for example.

Note: you can add some sliced vegan chourizo on top before baking too, I personally didn’t, but it wouldn’t hurt for some extra flavours.

Please see below estimated nutritional values.