This delicious recipe can be prepared in a jiffy, and the kids love it. It can also be made with noodles (gluten-free, hehe), but it's even better with rice. If you are vegan / vegetarian, you can adapt the recipe by eliminating the ham, as it is still very good. Enjoy it!
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 2 large onions
- 2 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled
- 1/2 small leek (optional)
- 1 small peeled carrot (optional)
- 6 garlic cloves cut into slices (removing the centre)
- 100 g of 100% acorn-fed Iberian ham cut into small pieces
- 250 g round rice (better if you soak it in water for a few hours before use and then wash it under running water)
- Spices and salt to taste (e.g. cumin, parsley, basil, oregano)
- EVOO
Preparation:
Peel the onions and cut them into small pieces (you can also chop them in a mincer or use frozen chopped onion). Put them in a saucepan with about 50 ml of EVOO and fry them over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, cut the ham into small cubes (if you didn't buy it already cut), slice the garlic cloves and peel and chop the tomatoes into medium-sized pieces. When the onions are lightly browned, add the ham and stir until it changes colour. Then add the garlic cloves and stir for 3-4 minutes. Finally add the tomato and stir for another 3-4 minutes. Then add about 1 or 1.5 litres of water (better if you have heated it beforehand), a little salt (be careful not to add too much, as the ham will have already salted the soup) and the spices of your choice. Leave to simmer for 40 minutes. Before serving, bring to the boil and add the rice. Remove from the heat when the rice is ready. It will look like a brothy rice stew.
Note 1:
Rice can be an important source of arsenic. You will not get arsenic poisoning if you eat it once in a while, but it should not be abused. To make sure that the rice you eat contains as little of this heavy metal as possible, you can follow several tips. On the one hand, find out on the internet about the arsenic load of the soil in the different production regions, and buy rice produced where the load is lowest. On the other hand, consume white rice instead of brown or semi-whole grain rice, as much of the toxic metal will be removed by the process of "peeling" the grain. Finally, leave the rice to soak for a few hours, and then wash it under the tap before cooking. For more information, I recommend this article by Lucía Redondo Cuevas where she explains it very well. https://redondocuevas.es/arsenico-arroz-alarmismo-realidad/
Note 2:
Why do I recommend using 100% acorn-fed Iberian ham and no other? As with pasture-raised animals, eating 100% acorn-fed Iberian pork is a much better guarantee that these animals have been reared in the wild and eaten what they should naturally eat (acorns, in this case) and not cereals or other food that is not part of their food chain. Acorn-fed 100% pork is much more expensive, but due to its characteristics, it is of infinitely better quality.
