Savoury Quorn 'Chicken' rice

The other day I was flicking through my lovely but slightly battered notebook I use for planning meals and making recipe notes in and I came across my scribblings for this recipe I made a few times last year, and realised it had never quite made it onto the blog. I’m not sure why, it was delicious but maybe the word ‘quorn’ just isn’t that appealing? I must admit it doesn’t exactly conjour up ‘ooh yum’ kinda thoughts!

Whilst I’m not vegetarian, at the same time I’ve never been a huge meat eater either. In fact I rarely cook meat for myself, is normally reserved for guests. My mum certainly had no trouble getting me to eat my vegetables growing up! Though she did tear her hair out slightly I think during my ‘veggie’ phase as a teen and I honestly never want to eat another cauliflower cheese bake during my lifetime!

I normally have a bag of quorn pieces stashed away in the freezer for emergencies. They are very handy for cooking from frozen, are frequently on special offer so purse friendly, and solve the issue of having some protein, something I seem to somehow forget when cooking just for myself! If you don't have the chunks, the quorn chicken style fillets work just as well, simply dice into 1cm cubes.

As mentioned at the the beginning, I’ve made this a few times now, its really tasty hot but also works well as part of a cold buffet or picnic recipe or for your lunchbox. Just make sure you cool everything down quickly.

Oh and this dish also reminds me of why I never want to touch Pimm's again but that's a whole other story.....!

The herbs and spices can be tweaked as to what you have in, think of this as a base recipe and let your mind wander!

From my rough scribbles this batch served two but is easily adjusted in quantities

Ingredients

100g basmati rice
150g Quorn chicken chunks or the fillets chopped up
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 red peppers from a chopped, sliced into chunks or 1/2 a fresh one, diced
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or use fresh)

1 tsp Dried oregano
1/2 tsp marigold stock powder into 1 pint boiling water
1/2 onion finely chopped
3 heaped tbsp frozen peas
3 heaped tbsp frozen sweetcorn
s&p

You will need a large lidded saute/ frying pan

Place the quorn chunks in a mixing bowl with all the spices and herbs, and 2 tbsp water, mix well and leave to one side.

Heat the pan, spray with oil and gently soften the onion, add the rice and half of the stock, cover and simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now add the remaining ingredients and stock, stir well and cover, simmer for a further 10 minutes or until the liquid has absorbed. Remove the lid if the mixture is too wet still.