How To Make Afghani Rice ~ Afghani Chalaw

 A simple traditional Afghan dish that is made with long-grain white basmati rice. Afghan rice is fluffy and has a texture similar to pasta. This delicious rice dish gets its delicious taste from several different spices.

I received samples of spices from Selefina to facilitate this recipe.

 Afghani rice also known as Afghani Chalaw is a traditional Afghan dish usually served as a side dish with different kinds of vegetarian or non-vegetarian curries. This flavorful rice is typically served with most meals. While this rice can take several hours to make, it is simple to make once you learn. Most of the time spent making this Afghanistan rice dish is in the soaking time of the rice. 

 I have a wonderful friend who loves cooking. The best part of her cooking talent is that she always shares food with my family. My husband loves it when my neighbor across the street has leftovers and brings them to us. My friend is from Afghanistan and has a unique cooking style that includes lamb, chicken, and the best rice dish that my family has ever tasted. When my friend brings over leftovers of Afghani Chalaw, my family eats it up quickly and then talks about the Afghan rice for days.

 When I visit my friend to return her pasta bowl, I always compliment her on making the best rice. My friend then asks if I would like more and quickly returns with more basmati rice for me to take home. Since this is traditional Afghan rice, she always has a pot of rice cooking on her stove. This is a rice dish from Afghanistan that is served with most meals. At Afghanistan celebrations, there is always a huge platter with traditional basmati rice and roasted meat like lamb.

How to make Afghani Chalaw ~ Afghani Rice

 A couple of weeks ago my friend surprised me with a big bag of long-grain basmati rice that she purchased from the local Afghanistan grocery store. My friend then shared with me her method of making Afghani rice. While she was sharing the how-tos of the Afghan rice recipe, she decided that it would be best to show me how to make the rice and asked me if I had time for her to come over later that day, so she could show me the step-by-step of how to cook Afghani Rice.

What is Basmati Rice?

 Basmati is an aromatic long-grain rice and is grown in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. The name Basmati originally comes from Sanskrit “Vasmati” meaning “fragrant".

Basmati Rice is:

~ Delicious 

~ Gluten-Free

~ A traditional rice dish from Afghanistan

~ Made with Basmati Rice

~ Easy-To-Make

~ Flavorful

~ A Delicious Side Dish

How to make Basmati Rice for Afghani Rice

+ Rinse the rice well ~ The secret to making this delicious rice dish is rinsing and soaking the basmati rice. The rice needs to be rinsed several times to clean away the starches of the rice. So keep rinsing the rice until the water is no longer cloudy.

+ Soak the rice ~ The basmati rice needs to be soaked in water for several hours. This is the key to making the rice tender and fluffy. Most people soak the rice overnight or first thing in the morning, so it is ready to cook for lunch.

+ Add the rice to boiling water for a few minutes. ~ This helps to soften the rice and make it long. 

+ Drain water and return the rice to the cooking pot ~ Then add water, spices, and oil. Start cooking the rice.

Spices needed for Afghani Rice

+ Whole Green Cardamom Pods  

+ Cumin Seeds 

+ Fresh Black Pepper

+ Sea Salt

 This rice dish gets its fragrant flavor from a couple of spices. The spices are black pepper, sea salt, green cardamon pods, and cumin seeds. While most people have salt and pepper in their spice cabinet, few people have Whole Green Cardamom Pods and Cumin Seeds. Since these are not traditional spices that are used in American recipes, you will have to purchase these spices from a specialty store.

Selefina is the best place to purchase small samples of spices

If you are looking for an online specialty store to buy unique spices, Selefina is the best spice store. Selefina not only has unique spices that you can't find in grocery stores, but they also have 'try me' samples of their spices and seasonings. So you can try a new spice or a small amount for a recipe without having to spend a fortune on a whole bottle of spices. 

Affordable spice samples encourage culinary exploration ~ Experimenting with novel flavors and new spices can be overwhelming, not to mention expensive. Selefina makes this easy and affordable by providing home cooks with inexpensive samples of its many herbs and spices.   

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 So now that you know how to make Afghani rice, you need to make it. Once you try it, you will love the unique flavor of the rice dish and understand why it is a family favorite. I used up that big 10-pound bag of basmati rice that my friend gave me. So I will need to head to the Afghan market to buy more. If you don't have access to an Afgan market, you can buy basmati rice on Amazon. This link shows the exact bag that my friend gave me. I love learning about other foods from other cultures. Next up will be learning how to make Nann bread.

Veggie Burgers Made With Beans and Rice

Looking for a way to save money on groceries? Eating meatless meals will help you save money. Beans are also an awesome source of protein and are perfect for healthy plant-based meals. These veggie burgers are the perfect meatless recipe that uses beans and rice.

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 The year 2020 will go down in history for a lot of reasons. The main reason people will remember the year 2020 is that it will be a deadly respiratory virus that will affect the whole world. This C lung virus changed so many things for many people, and one of them is the way people eat. 

 Many people started eating at home more often, and many had to learn how to cook. Not only did people have to learn how to cook, but many had to learn how to cook with ingredients like beans and rice. Beans and rice were items that people stocked up on as they panicked and shopped for food. 

  I remember the day that I entered the grocery store for the last time in 8 weeks. I was just there to do some grocery shopping. My college kid got the news that his school was closed for a couple of weeks. So I needed to buy food for him since he was going to be living with us for a while. When I entered the store parking lot, I had trouble finding a parking spot. Then I could not find a shopping cart. I had not watched the news, so I had no clue about what was happening in our town.

 When I saw the bare shelves in the store and long checkout lines, my panic started to set in. I was not planning to stockpile, as I already had a stockpile of food, but when I saw the empty shelves, I admit I bought more than I was planning. I was thankful that most of the food I wanted was still on the shelves.

 I was also thankful that I had plenty of dried beans and rice at home. The store was out of beans and rice. For some strange reason, people were stocking up on beans and rice. Beans and rice are the perfect ingredients for healthy, frugal meals.

You are going to LOVE these veggie burgers! These easy-to-make vegan burgers are:

+ Hearty
+ Simple
+ Vegan
+ Plant-based
+ Soy-free
+ Vegetarian
+ Super flavorful
+ Satisfying
+ Loaded with healthy ingredients
+ Frugal
+ Seriously tasty

Beans and rice were most people's prepper items 

 I am glad that I did not need any beans and rice, as the stores had none. People were hoarding all the beans and rice, but not me. I always have plenty of dried beans and rice in my pantry as they are staples in my plant-based diet. I think most people were hogging all the beans and rice as they had read that they were great for long-term storage or they read a blog post about the best foods to stock up on for an emergency or zombie attack.

 These people never thought that they had to actually eat the beans and rice. So now these food hoarders or C virus preppers have 25-pound bags of rice and uncooked beans in their pantries and have no clue how to make them taste good. I can hear the groans at dinner time: "Not beans and rice again!"

  Beans and rice are economical food choices. Beans and rice are also a good source of meatless protein. That may be the reason they are included in many vegetarian meals. Did you know that beans are loaded with fiber and lots of nutrition? When beans are combined with grains, they are a complete source of protein. When people think of meatless meals, they think of beans and rice. Here in New Mexico, beans and rice are always served at Mexican restaurants as a side dish to the main meal. So my guess is that even people here are looking for bean recipes beyond refried beans or beans smothered with green chile and cheese.

How to cook dried beans

 Most people who hoarded the beans probably had no clue how to cook beans and were shocked at the time it took to cook beans. Once they learned that they had to soak the beans overnight and then cook the beans for 2 hours, I bet they stopped cooking beans. Beans can be a pain to cook, but once you learn some bean tips, you might cook beans more often. The best way to cook beans is in a pressure cooker, as you can cook beans in about 40 minutes. Cooking beans in a pressure cooker is easy, as you just rinse the beans, cover them with water, start the pressure cooker, and walk away.

 Another way to cook beans is in a slow cooker. This bean cooking method takes 6 hours, but it also allows you the freedom of not having to watch a pot. The basic bean cooking method used by most is the stovetop bean cooking method, but this can take 2 hours or more. You also have to watch your cooking pot so it does not over-boil, so no walking away from the kitchen. My preferred bean cooking method is the pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

You can freeze beans

                            Mix all the ingredients in a bowl

So now that you know that dried beans take a while to cook, you need to think ahead when planning your meals. When I cook beans, I always make a double batch of beans. I then store the extra cooked beans in my fridge or freezer for other meals. Beans freeze quite well. My bean advice is to freeze the beans in recipe-size portions, like 2 cups, so you can use them in bean recipes like pressure cooker BBQ baked beans or white bean chili. You can even use the beans to make healthy Gluten-Free Chocolate Mocha Protein Brownies or vegan tuna salad. Once you discover that beans are a frugal source of protein and many bean recipes like this veggie burger recipe, you may just be stocking your freezer with cooked dried beans. 

So many varieties of beans

                            Shape the mixture into patties

 If you are new to cooking dried beans, you probably can name only a few types of beans. The most common dried beans are pinto beans, black beans, red beans or kidney beans, navy beans, or white beans, and garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas. Lately, garbanzo beans have been my favorite, and I have been cooking dried garbanzo beans in a pressure cooker. I have been making so many recipes with garbanzo beans, like vegan crab cakes. The beans that my family has been eating plenty of have been pinto beans, and I have been making mock Chiptole beans with them, as this recipe only needs a couple of spices along with dried pinto beans.

 Other less-known beans are calico beans or Anasazi Beans, Cannellini beans, and lima beans, to name a few. I always have several types of dried and canned beans in my pantry. I love using canned black beans for tacos and canned garbanzo beans for my easy hummus recipe.  Dried beans are cheaper, but canned beans are convenient. This veggie burger recipe can be made with cooked dried beans or canned beans. You can also use any variety of beans in this plant-based recipe.

Dried beans ratio to cooked beans

A rule of thumb for dried beans is 1 cup of dried beans equal 3 cups of cooked beans. So a pound of dried beans equals 6 cups of cooked beans. A can of beans equals about 2 cups of beans

A few simple ingredients are needed to make veggie burgers

 These tasty meatless burgers are made with simple ingredients like beans and rice, along with spices that you probably have in your cabinet and bread crumbs. You can use white or brown rice, depending on your preference and the bean of your choice. I like to use black or pinto beans in my veggie burger recipe. I made these burgers with white rice, but I prefer brown rice as it is more nutritious.

 If you don't have any rice but have quinoa, you need to make these quinoa and bean veggie burgers.

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Veggie Burgers Made With Beans and Rice

Yield: 5

Author: Mom Knows Best

You are going to LOVE these veggie burgers! These easy to make vegan burgers are so healthy and flavorful.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 medium white onion, finely diced
• 1 1/2 cups cooked beans, I like black or pinto
• 1 cup cooked rice, brown or white
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons BBQ sauce or ketchup

Instructions:

1. In a skillet heat the oil over medium heat and add the diced onion. Cook the onion until soft, about 4 minutes. Set aside.
2. Add the cooked beans to a large mixing bowl and mash them well with a potato masher or a fork.
3. Add all the remaining ingredients and the cooked onion to the bowl with the mashed beans. Stir well. To get the veggie burger mixture combined thoroughly, I like to mix it with my clean hands. Don't worry about germs as cooking the veggie burgers will kill any germs in the food. 
4. To assemble the veggie burgers, take a 1/2 well-packed cup of the mixture, and use your hands to form it into a burger shape.
5. Set the formed burgers on a baking sheet.
6. Heat up a skillet to medium heat and lightly coat it with oil.  Then place as many burgers that will fit in the heated pan.
7. Cook the veggie burgers for 4 minutes or until well browned. Then gently flip the burgers as these burgers are not as firm as regular ones made with meat. 
8. Cook the burgers for an additional 3-4 minutes.
9. Serve the veggie burgers on buns with desired toppings like lettuce, tomato, ketchup, etc. Store leftover burgers in the fridge for three days.

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