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Monday, July 9, 2012

Zucchini and Rice Side Dish

Many years ago, I worked with a girl whose parents were from Yugoslavia. Her mom would call the office occasionally and before I transferred the call we'd have brief conversations that usually revolved around food (as best we could understand each other). One day she sent a container of zucchini in for me to try. It was a side dish that was grated and had a tomato sauce base with lots of paprika. It was amazing! How many times do we hear that about zucchini??? She was a "pinch of this" cook and I'm truly disappointed that I didn't get a recipe. Even though the original didn't have rice, here's my wink-and-nod to that memory.
Add a pork chop and I'd call this dinner:@)

Zucchini and Rice
1/2 C onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 C green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 C water-the zucchini will provide the rest of the liquid
3/4 C tomato sauce
1/2 C rice-preferably white long grain, I only had brown so that's what I used
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
Few grinds of black pepper
1 (6") zucchini, grated
  1. Saute onion in olive oil until it softens up a bit, 5 minutes.
  2. Add garlic and green pepper, cook for 1 minute more.
  3. Add water, tomato sauce, rice, paprika, salt and black pepper. Mix, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Note: This is for white rice, you'll need to cook brown rice longer, maybe 25-30 minutes while adding some extra water if necessary.
  4. Add zucchini and cook for 7-10 minutes longer, or until rice is done. 
This is moist and creamy, the paprika really gives it a subtle "different" flavor and it's 
a great way to use up some garden zucchini! Easily doubled, etc. 
Oh and, if you're familiar with the "real" all zucchini recipe, I'd love it if you'd share:@)

Eat well and have a happy day!

20 comments:

  1. I love zucchini! And this dish sounds so great and I think it would be absolutely perfect for children. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. It looks like something my family would like. We regularly get zucchini from people from their gardens, but we're more of a yellow squash family. I have about two recipes with zucchini so this one would give me another. I also happen to keep the rest of the ingredients on hand. Voila, a quick and different side dish!

    I also enjoyed your pink finds from your Saturday outing.

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  3. I love a saucy rice dish! I'm going to look around in my Eastern European stuff and see if I can find something similar!

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  4. I have an abundance of grated Zucchini in my freezer, from last season. I need to clear it out and this will be a great solution! Thanks again! xo

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  5. I bet this is a goodie!!! I love zucchini too.
    Happy monday.

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  6. Lynn,
    Mister loves rice, so I will have to try this! If you were local, I'd inundate you with zucchini!

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  7. I love zucchini and this dish looks yummy! I will try this for sure! hugs, Linda

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  8. This sounds so good... I love all of the ingredients! I could make this a main dish since I'm not a big meat eater but the hubby is so I would have to add the pork chop or piece of chicken, lol!

    I hope you find the original recipe.

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  9. You know I love all rice recipes and I have never seen one like this. Will give it a whirl one day soon. thanks bunches.

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  10. I'm sure that the paprika adds a lot of nice flavor to this rice dish, Lynn. I always buy a can of fresh paprika whenever I visit a Polish neighborhood store. I bet this would also taste good i=with a little kielbasa added!

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  11. This recipe looks absolutely delicious Lynn! I am always looking for something unique to use the zukes in. I would try this with some bar b qued chicken too!

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  12. YUM -- sounds like the best of dishes! My Mom always cooked zucchini with butter, onion, garlic and tomato sauce - a greek neighbor taught her how in the 1960's - so very yummy :)

    Blessings!
    Gail

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  13. I agree that would go well with pork. What does Earl think?

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  14. YUMMY. This time of year we always have sooo much zucchini it's nice to find ways to work it into other foods! I love rice and zucchini so this is a sure thing for us.

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  15. I love foods that bring back good, fun memories, this looks great!

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  16. Hubby brought me home lots of zucchini. This recipe will be perfect!

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  17. Looks so good. Tomato sauce, rice and zucchini, delicious combination. Saving this, now that the heat wave broke around here I should start cooking again!

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  18. I love finding new zucchini recipes, this is the time of year we all have lots of them. Looks delicious, beautiful color!

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  19. Love this. Two of my fav things; rice and zucchini.

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