In my house, we have a love/hate relationship with rice, mainly because we make it a lot, and it gets boring.
My solution is usually to change the type of rice or cook it in a broth with nuts or veg or cheese stirred in, but that gets dull too. The brainstorm I had was adding pesto to the hot rice and changing up the Parm in the pesto to Feta. It was a good move! The rice is garlicky but balanced with the basil and, of course, has a subtle nutty texture from the pine nuts. It's definitely, a pleasure to eat, and not boring.
If you want even more flavor to the rice, cook in vegetable or chicken broth, but if you do, reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/4 tsp.
Notes: Olive oil is extra-virgin.
FETA PESTO RICE
Ingredients: 2 cups prepared rice (any kind), 2 1/2 cups basil leaves, three medium cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup pine nuts, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, 1/3 cup crumbled Feta cheese and grated Parmesan cheese for serving (opt.).
Serves 4-6.
1. Cook rice and set aside.
2. Combine basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and sea salt in the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until mostly smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Add Feta and pulse until desired texture is reached.
3. Fold the feta pesto into the hot rice. Serve immediately with Parm sprinkled over, if you like.