Simple Vegetable & Rice bake

I know I said on Friday that I was looking forward to letting Mum look after me, but it was only a joke (sort of) :-)

One thing I like to do when I'm home (in the family home that is) is scour Mum's magazines for new recipes (she buys Womens Weekly & Better Homes & Gardens & things like that). Occasionally I'll find a real gem. Last night I found a ninja vegan recipe in Australian Good Food. The Vegetable & Rice bake looked super easy & super simple so I thought it wouldn't stretch my relaxing mini-break too much for me to prepare it :-) I halved the recipe (I'm feeding just me after all), which still made enough for 2 people.

Here it is, served with some turkish bread drizzled with olive oil & sprinkled with fresh parsley - yum!
Vegetable & Rice Bake

• 1 cup basmati rice
  
• 1 TBS olive oil
  
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 2 tsp chopped rosemary
  
• 250g button mushrooms, quartered
  
• 2 red capsicums, sliced
  
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
  
• 1 3/4 cups vegetable stock
  
• Freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 190C. Rinse the rice & drain. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole dish & cook the onion 2-3mins, until softened. Add the rosemary & mushrooms & cook another 2mins.

Add the rice & stir to coat, then add the capsicum, tomato, stock & pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then cover with a tightly fitting lid. Put into the oven & bake 20-25mins, until the rice is tender. Serve topped with the parsley.

When I get back to Melbourne I'm going to try a couple of alterations to make it even healthier - I'd like to use brown rice (I'll add a little more liquid & increase the cooking time) and throw in some protein - I think chickpeas or red kidney beans would work well.

Here are some shots of Mum & Dad's dogs. So cute! I really miss them when I'm away. Tess is a cross between a collie & something mysterious. She's a massive sook as you can probably tell by those eyes :-)
Lucy is a border collie & hates getting her photo taken.