Color-rice

Do you know how to create a nutritionally balanced dish?

Dare to mix colors: that’s the first step to get it! We may sound too simplistic or naive to you but, as cooking is a highly creative process where all senses are involved, imagination and freedom are essential for it. Do you remember when you used to lay on the floor, drawing and picking colours from your pencil case? Follow the same self-confidence when you cook and you will be surprised by the nice combinations you can find yourself. Let’s see then which colours we picked for the recipe of today:

BLACK: as black rice…that was so precious that only Emperors were allowed to eat it in Ancient China. We used Venere rice, which is a cross between an Asian variety and an Italian one. Full of anthocyanins (very powerful antioxidants), fibers and iron: this is the perfect basis of our dish for its sweet aromatic flavour and tonifying action.

YELLOW: as eggs…they provide a complete source of proteins, nourishing Yin and Blood, helping to calm down Shen.

GREEN: as peas and courgettes. The first have a sweet flavour and go mainly to Spleen and Stomach, leading QI downwards, promoting diuresis and nourishing also Yin and Blood. The second are cool in energy and purify Heat of Liver, Stomach and Blood, giving lightness and freshness to this dish.

And what about you? Which colors did you pick?

Color-Rice

Serves 6 -Easy-Prep time: 40 minutes

You will need:

4 cups of black rice (if you can not find it, basmati can be good for this recipe);

400g peas;

3 zucchini;

4 eggs;

1 tbsp olive oil;

salt;

50 ml milk;

basil or parsley.

How to:

Bring water to boil in a big pot. In the meanwhile, wash quickly the rice to get rid of some starch;

add a tablespoon of salt to the boiling water and put the rice in. Let it cook for about 20 minutes (the time depends a lot by the kind of rice you bought, so get informed at the time of purchase!), then drain it. Remember that these kind of rices stay quite hard also when cooked;

heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add the cut zucchini. Let cook for couple of minutes, then add a glass of white wine and a pinch of salt;

let cook for extra 10 minutes on a low fire, adding half a glass of water in case they dry out too much;

parboil the peas: drop them quickly in boiling water (about 4-5 minutes), so they’ll stay crunchy;

beat the eggs with a bit of mik (about 50ml), add a pinch of salt and finely chopped basil or parsley;

heat a tablespoon of oil in a big nonstick pan, then start adding the egg mix, in order to make very thin omelettes, then cut them in small stripes or squares;

mix all the ingredients and serve. This rice works well also as a cold dish, so if you are planning a night picnic on the beach, you know what to bring with you!

#venererice #blackrice #rice #zuchini #egg #oliveoil #parsley