Red Rice

I have a "problem" where I often go to Costco with the intention of not buying grains (because we have a lot) and then walk out with something that was either a limited time special or on sale. That was the case with these Earthly Choice boxes of rice that we bought back in late 2015 with three different types of rice. We made about 2/3 of this box of red rice for a different dish, so I figured I would finish it off by following the recipe on the back of the box.

The recipe was for red rice with asparagus and goat cheese, and the ingredients (as adapted) were:

- 1 cup red rice ($1? It's been too long to know for sure)

- about 3 oz herb goat cheese ($1.80)

- 1 package of asparagus spears, blanched and sliced ($2.99)

- 2 small onions, chopped ($0.30)

- olive oil ($0.20)

- 2 cups water ($0)

- salt ($0.05)

The rice side cost about $6.34, which we added to some panko chicken tenders, so the total cost of dinner was probably around $10. Not too bad. 

The steps were basically to saute the onions, add rice and toast for a few minutes, and then add salt and water and simmer the rice for 20 minutes (or until water is absorbed). After fluffing the rice, you were supposed to add the goat cheese and the asparagus, gently stirring them in so that the goat cheese stayed in clumps. I tried to do that, but it was pretty much impossible. At some point I just gave up and stirred the whole thing together and all the goat cheese melted.

This recipe was fine, but I'm not sure I need to make it again. It was a good way to use up the rest of the red rice in the box but didn't have a ton of flavor, even after adding more seasoning, other than whatever herbs were in the goat cheese. I'm glad we tried it, but it's not going to get a spot in the rotation.