Hello everyone,

So good news! John and I are headed to Texas tomorrow. We will be visiting San Antonio and Austen, and driving around exploring every little town we can. This means you get this week’s edition a little early. I suspect my next recipe of the week may have some sort of southern theme to it, as I will likely be inspired by all of the Texas BBQ John and I will be feasting on!

This week’s recipe is a wonderful side dish featuring aborio rice, spinach and lemon. This dish is a great accompanyment to any herbed fish, chicken or pork entré. We served ours with a BBQ porkloin, BBQ vegetables and baked asparagus.

TIPS:
– Depending on how much spinach you add, the suggested amount of water required for the recipe may not be enough. When I last made this dish, I probably ended up using closer to 3.5 cups of water, but I added a large quantity of spinach. I would suggest adding the 2 cups and checking after about 10 minutes to see if more water is necessary.
– You also may want to add a little butter while the dish is cookie.
– Don’t be conservative with the amount of dill you use

Ingredient Ican’t live without:

SPINACH
I always have a large plastic container of spinach in my fridge. I love switching between lettuce and spinach for my salads to change it up. I also will sauté spinach and tomatoes with my eggs, either scrambling the eggs with the veggies, or cracking the eggs on top, adding a little water, covering and poaching the eggs.

Herb/Spice of the week:

FRESH DILL:
I love fresh dill. It is great in this week’s dish. I use it in my tzatiki recipe, in foiled carrots and potatoes, or salads. I also love throwing some on steamed carrots with butter. YUM.

Thanks again to John for help with the picture below. I will be back next week!

Bon appetit,

Julie

Click here to view printable Word version of recipe:
Spinach with Dill and Arborio Rice

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Spinach with Dill and Arborio Rice

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch fresh spinach
Olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup fresh dill
1 cup Arborio rice
2 cups water
Juice of 1 lemon
Feta cheese, crumbled

DIRECTIONS:

Saute onions and salt in oil, about 5 minutes.

Add spinach to the pan and sauté. Add dill, rice and water. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer covered, until water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
If the rice is not tender and fluffy, add more water and continue simmering.

Remove the pan from heat. Add lemon juice and drizzle with some olive oil.

Top with crumbled feta.