By Melanie Edwards 156 Comments
I am very fond of rice. Fond doesn’t even cover it. I’m actually quite in love with rice. You ask me what the ultimate comfort food is and I’ll quickly tell you rice and beans. I practically grew up eating rice on a daily basis. There were days my mami made vegetables (of the root kind) instead of rice. Or days she made spaghetti (though, even then she served it with white rice on the side, but that’s another story). But, overall, most days out of my childhood were spent eating rice for dinner. I’m sure if you ask most Puerto Ricans, they too will tell you that they have a special place in their hearts for arroz y habichuelas. They’ll also tell you about the extra special place in their hearts for their family’s arroz con gandules recipe.
Rice can be served in so many different ways. You can have white rice alone, white rice with a variety of beans (served on top of the rice, not on the side), and yellow rice. Yellow rice is when you really get a variety since you can mixjust about anything into yellow rice: beans, vegetables, meat, etc. But, perhaps the most well-known Puerto Rican rice is arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas). Traditionally served for Noche Buena, arroz con gandules is also a big hit for a family get-together or just for your everyday weeknight dinner. (Side note: In Trinidad, where my husband is from, they call it Rice and Peas. I’m lucky he loves it as much as I do!)
Being a busy working mom with not as much time to dedicate to cooking, I’m known for cooking Puerto Rican food in non-traditional ways and using shortcuts. (See my post on planning a weekly dinner menu – using shortcuts.) My number one favorite appliance in my house is my rice cooker. I must kiss the person who invented a rice cooker. It cooks my Puerto Rican rice just the same as my mom’s iron pot – well almost the same – unfortunately, it doesn’t make muchpegao. But, otherwise, it tastes the same and requires a lot less maintenance to cook. Read on to see my Puerto Rican arroz con gandules recipe using a rice cooker!
How to Make Arroz con Gandules in a Rice Cooker (Puerto Rican Rice with Pigeon Peas Recipe)
Arroz con Gandules Recipe
Arroz con Gandules Recipe - How to Make Puerto Rican Arroz con Gandules in a Rice Cooker (Rice with Pigeon Peas Recipe)
CourseDinner, Entree, Main Course, Side Dish
CuisineCaribbean, Latin, Puerto Rican
Keywordcaribbean cuisine, caribbean food, caribbean recipes, easy recipes, latin cuisine, latin food, latin recipes, puerto rican cuisine, puerto rican food, puerto rican recipes, quick recipes, rice cooker recipes, rice recipes, simple recipes, yellow rice recipes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Author Melanie Edwards
Ingredients
- abt 1handful per personwhite riceuncooked
- water
- cooking oilvegetable
- 1packetsazón
- 2Tbsptomato sauce
- 1Tbsptomato paste
- 1Tbspsofrito(or recaito)
- 5-6olives(Spanish salad olives with pimientos)
- 1cangandules (pigeon peas)drained & rinsed
- saltto taste
- adoboto taste
Instructions
Put rice into your rice cooker’s pot and clean the rice. If you’re not familiar withhow to clean rice, it just means that you run it under water a couple of times and pick out the dark grains, pebbles, etc. To do this:
Fill pot with water and press rice with your hands. Pick out anything that’s not a rice grain. Pour out water, being careful not to lose any of the rice. Repeat a few times until water pours out clear.
Add water to the pot until the water sitsjust above the rice. (I’ve heard that normally it is a 2-1 ratio: for every cup of rice, you add 2 cups of water. I’ve never cooked it this way, as I find it turns out to be too much water, making the rice too mushy.)
Add a serving-spoon’s worth of cooking oil. Not a tablespoon, but the bigger spoon one uses to stir a pot. (Should turn out to be close to 3 Tbsp of oil.)
Addremaining ingredients.
Stir.
Taste the water. If you feel it needs more seasoning, you can add a little of either salt orAdoboto your liking.
Cover and set the rice cooker to cook.
Recipe Notes
To see pictures and links for these ingredients, see 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food
There will be no need to stir the rice while it cooks, though you certainly can do so once about mid-way through. Yourarroz con gandulesshould be done in about 30 minutes or so. You will know it’s done when you taste the rice and it’sneither mushy nor tough.
*The beauty of this recipe? You can swap out that can of gandules and make many other varieties of yellow rice.
- Rice with corn (arroz con maíz): Use 1 can of drained corn instead.
- Rice with beans (arroz con habichuelas): Use 1 can of washed and drained beans – any color.
- Rice with vegetables (arroz con vegetales): Use 1 can of drained mixed vegetables.
- Rice with chicken (arroz con pollo): Add cubed, cooked, grilled chicken. (Traditional arroz con pollo would use chicken on a bone and would cook the chicken first in the same pot before adding the rice and other ingredients. But, this will give you a decent version.)
I hope you enjoy this simple and easy Puerto Ricanarroz con gandules recipeusing a rice cooker. I have found it to be much easier than cooking it in a regular pot and it tastes just the same. It allows for me to do other things (i.e., play with my kidsafter work/school) without worrying about getting up every few minutes to stir and watch the rice.
Need a Rice Cooker?
*By shopping through the following links, I will receive a small commission. Thanks for your support!
Do you have a favorite shortcut for cooking rice? If you try this arroz con gandules recipe, please come back and let me know how you liked it!
All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™
