This evening I was abandoned to my own devices by the rest of the family, so I wanted to make myself something quick and tasty, but ideally having a low amount of work!
A savoury rice dish is not totally dissimilar to a risotto or a biryani, they are all rice dishes with additional flavours blended in, though a savoury rice is probably the loosest defined, and is often a lot less work than the others!
I started this one with some oil heating in a pan to which I added a half teaspoon each of cumin seeds, cardamom seed (a few cracked pods would work either) and some nigella (onion) seeds. When the seeds started to sizzle and pop, I added in a finely chopped small onion (a shallot would work).
I drained a small, 225g can of chickpeas, reserving the chickpea water. When the onions were starting to turn translucent, I added in the chickpeas and 75g of long grain rice. I stirred in a half teaspoon of cumin powder, a half of garam masala, and about a quarter teaspoon of dried chilli flakes. A teaspoon of veg bouillon powder went in, though a veg stock cube would also work, and I then stirred in the reserved chickpea water and about 200ml of boiling water. I didn't add any salt now, as the bouillon had salt in it.
This I left to boil away, checking every so often for doneness in the rice, and topping up with water as needed.
Last step, and this would be optional (though might need some salt otherwise) was to take the pan off the heat and then stir in a heaped teaspoon of fresh miso.
If you were in a real hurry, you could eat this straight from the pan! 😀