This healthy mid-week meal is so easy to make – it’s ideal for feeding a family of four or preparing ahead and portioning out for some nutritious desk lunches!
Recipe Notes and Substitutions
1. This vegetarian recipe can be made vegan, by swapping out the feta for vegan feta or a vegan cheese substitute or simply excluding a cheese.
- If you or your family don’t like olives, omit them and swap in chopped red pepper instead.
- Artichokes can be quite expensive and can easily be replaced with another vegetable such as asparagus slices in spring or even mushrooms, quartered.
- For more flavour, you can use vegetable stock instead of water, however, this will also make the dish more salty.
- The white beans are a delicious, creamy addition to the dish, but could also be swapped out with one tin of chickpeas or a tin or brown lentils.
What You Need:
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 1 tin of butter beans (or kidney or borlotti brands)
- 1-2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
- 200g sliced baby tomatoes
200g baby marrow, chopped into 1-2cm pieces - 100g of sundried tomatoes, chopped (or sundried tomato pesto)
- 100g artichokes, chopped
- 100g pitted kalamata or green olives
- 200g baby spinach
3 cups of water
For garnishing:
- Italian parsley or basil
- 1 lemon, zested
Salt & freshly ground black pepper - 100g feta (or vegan feta), crumbled over
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Add all the main ingredients into a large casserole dish and stir together and give a gentle stir to combine. Make sure that the rice is covered with enough liquid and place foil or baking paper on top to keep the moisture in.
3. Bake for about 40-45mins until the rice is properly cooked through.
4. Once removed, garnish with herbs, lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of seasoning to taste.
Looking for another delicious and comforting healthy one tray oven dish?
Try our sweet potato cottage pie with lentils here: https://medshieldmovement.co.za/veggie-cottage-pie-with-orange-sweet-potato-mash/
Or this chicken, potato and veg one-tray dinner here: https://medshieldmovement.co.za/one-tray-dinner-lemony-chicken-and-potatoes-with-olives-feta/