Experimenting with food and the items one has in their kitchen has always been a fun thing for me. In fact I find cooking not only relaxing but creative. It however does not have to be labor intensive nor take hours to make a healthy meal or a good looking dish.
This one skillet dish came about one night while I was looking inside my refrigerator and I honestly just decided to see how it all tasted together. My husband now asks for this dish at least once a week.
Pepper – Kale Skillet
Bright fall colors make this warm skillet recipe pop. © Photo by Florence Ricchiazzi Lince
Ingredients
1 onion, slivered
bell peppers in a variety of colors, seeded and cut into strips
grapeseed oil
pre-cooked brown rice
kale – broken up into bite sized pieces
nut mixture (mine was almonds, cashews, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds)
salt to taste
Directions
Here is where I might begin to make some folks crazy. Not only do I do most of my cooking without measuring ingredients but I make as much or as little as I want as I go. My skillet makes enough for four people very nicely.
I began by sauteing the slivered onion and the bell peppers in the grapeseed oil. I cooked them for about 20 minutes or so until they were all tender.
Then I added in my chopped kale, my pre-cooked brown rice and I let it all cook together until the kale was wilted and the rice had soaked up the oil. The last thing I threw into the skillet was the nut mixture and then I let it all cook together until the nut mixture was warm, I’d say no longer than five minutes. Remember to keep stirring or turning over the mixture as its cooking.
There you have it. All told it took me no longer than 30 minutes to make this dish. We added salt to our own dishes as warranted. I don’t tend to cook with a lot of spices while I’m cooking unless the spices will add something to change the taste of the dish. I also tend to eat less salt this way so that is another reason I don’t pre-salt my foods when cooking.
A word about the pre-cooked brown rice I used. I am making my own vegetable soup and I always make enough so that I can use the broth from the soup to make my rice. I try to keep two cups of cooked brown rice in the refrigerator at all times. I use this rice in all types of recipes (which I will share more of in the future). Because the rice is cooked with vegetable broth it brings a really nice flavor to any recipe I make, especially recipes made with vegetables.
If you try this recipe let me know what you think and as always if you have a recipe you think I would enjoy I hope to hear from you.
Florence Lince
Lean, Mean and Vegan 