This week, the rest of the French Fridays crew will be serving duck, but I’ll have to leave that for another time. Instead, I’m going to write about a dish I missed posting about when it came up in the recipe rotation in May – Cardamom Rice Pilaf. It’s another of Dorie’s back-pocket recipes that are perfect for making weekday cooking a little more interesting. It’s simply rice cooked with onion, cardamom, and stock, then seasoned with a little lemon zest and pepper. It’s flavourful without overwhelming anything else on the plate, works as well with fancy food as it does plain, and is almost as easy as cooking plain rice.
I’ve made it a few times, now, without really having changed it. I like it as it is. The leftovers, though, make for inspiring fried rice or rice casseroles. The photos show one of my favourite meals for a busy weeknight. Salmon cakes (from an Ocean Wise approved producer), mixed greens, and this rice.
Sometimes, this cooking group isn’t about learning new techniques or using unfamiliar ingredients. Sometimes, it’s about remembering that the simplest foods can be made interesting, without difficulty and with great results.
You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Cardamom Rice Pilaf
One Wet Foot 
Glad the rice pilaf is on your regular rotation. That is the ONE dish that I cannot master from the book, sigh.
I love what you said , Teresa, about being reminded how easy it is to make simple food interesting. The rice pilaf is one of my favorites in the book. I’ve made it repeatedly myself. You’ll have to catch up with the duck recipe at some point. Wasn’t it you who suggested it? It was fantastic.
I adored this pilaf – must make it again sometime soon.
You make me want to try making this again. John and I didn’t care for the cardamom because it was a little overwhelming to us in this dish, but our daughter loved it. I want to try it again with less cardamom because we do enjoy that spice in baked goods.
I didn’t make this rice but I think I’ll like it as I liked the cardamon carrot dish very much. 🙂 Great balanced meal you have there!
This was during my FFwD sabbatical…. I think I will give it a try.
I haven’t made this one yet but you’ve made me want to give it a try. Looks delicious!