This is a delicious mexican spiced rice which is a perfect pairing for fajitas or a fish dish.

The jalapeno chillis give a lovely smokey but subtly spicy flavour and cooked in your Zojirushi and Sakura makes it even easier! A great side dish which is vegetarian and vegan – best of all your leftovers can be used the next day to make ‘Mexican fried rice’, just try in the same way you would normal cold rice and it’s s delicious twist to a lunchtime staple.

Ingredients

  • One cup of rice (measured with the cup that comes with your Zojirushi)
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • half a red onion finely sliced
  • 1-2 jalapeno chillis (chopped finely, seeds left in – depends on how spicy you like it!). You can substitute fresh with ones from a jar if you want to
  • Tin of tinned tomatoes (we strain and push this through a sieve to just get the liquid, but you could use passata instead)
  • Stock cube (chicken, beef or veg) plus 100ml of hot water
  • Black pepper

Method

1. Put one cup of rice in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water and leave to drain.

Rice soaking in boiling water

2. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic, onion and jalapeno, once slightly browned add the rice and fry until it’s dried out and turning slightly golden.

Rice, onion, garlic and jalapeno frying

3. Add the rice, garlic, onion and jalapeno to the rice cooker bowl and then pour the tomato juice on top. Stir well, add a shake of pepper and the stock cube and water. If necessary, top up with water to between the 1 and 2 cup line for white rice.

Rice with the tomato, stock cube and water in the rice cooker

4. Close the lid and press ‘start’ (normal white rice setting)
5. When the cooking cycle is complete, lift the lid, it will look like the below photo and is a bit wet. Stir the rice to release the steam and moisture and leave on keep warm for at least 30 minutes – this will dry the rice out a little.

Mexican rice cooked – as soon as the cooking cycle finishes

*If you want to, you can add a handful of frozen/fresh peas at the beginning of the cooking cycle to add extra flavour and colour.