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Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf with Spiced Beef and Green Beans
The Persian dish known as loobia polow, or green beans and rice, served as the inspiration for this recipe. White basmati rice would be the classic choice, but we opted for brown basmati. The grains hold up well to pressure cooking and their nutty flavor pairs well with the earthy spices and the sweetness from the golden raisins. This is a one-pot meal, though a salad of tomatoes and cucumbers with a simple lemon and olive oil vinaigrette would be a nice accompaniment, as would plain yogurt for dolloping on the pilaf.
4
Servings
Tip
Don't use extra-lean ground beef. The small amount of fat from 85 percent lean ground beef adds richness to the dish and also carries flavor so the spicy, sweet and herbal notes taste fuller and more complex.
1 hour 10 minute
25 minutes active
Ingredients
-
8
ounces 85 percent lean ground beef
-
2
tablespoons tomato paste
Directions
-
01In a medium bowl, mix together the beef, tomato paste, cinnamon, turmeric, 1¾ teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper; set aside. On a 6-quart Instant Pot, select Normal/Medium Sauté. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and the green beans, then cook, stirring occasionally, until browned in spots, 8 to 9 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil and the beef mixture. Cook, stirring to break up the meat into small pieces, until the beef is no longer pink, 2 to 4 minutes. Press Cancel, then stir in the rice and half the raisins. Pour in 1½ cups water and distribute the rice-beef mixture in an even layer.
Pardon the interruption
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February 6, 2023
Simple and Delicious
So easy and so delicious. I love the comments above about increasing the beef as the beef is a little light for this carnivore. The cinnamon and turmeric combination was just right. My rice too was a little underdone but I rather enjoyed the chewiness of it.
October 22, 2022
Great side or main
No doubt this is a simple side to make in the instant pot, which enables me to make a different main on the stovetop. My 9/12 year olds also love it which is saying a lot. I increase the spice on the beef to our taste preference. Delicious.
October 15, 2022
Simple & Tasty
I haven't found golden raisins lately but regular works fine.
December 11, 2022
Pretty good
We had a pound of ground beef, so mixed the beef doubling the quantities of everything included in it, then divided it in half and made 2 iterations. The rice was a bit undercooked for our tastes, but that’s easily corrected. It all worked fine, especially served with yogurt, but it wasn’t great enough that we’ll make it again. Too bad, it was pretty straightforward.
January 30, 2024
Craveable
I was intrigued by the unusual spice combination so I made this following the recipe as written. When I tasted it, I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but it grew on me. I went back for seconds and now I'm craving it :-). The rice was a bit undercooked but I enjoyed it's chewiness.
Flavor was great, not sure why but bottom stuck/scorched pretty badly.. I do use a stovetop pressure cooker but nothing has ever stuck before?!?!
I tried this today and all the rice at bottom scorched as well. I used a stovetop pressure cooker so not sure if there's a difference with Instapot pressure cooker setting?
Loooved this! Made this stove top with white basmati rice (following package cooking directions) and it was perfect. Accompanied it with the amazing and simple Shirazi Salad also from Milk Street which really made the dish shine. If you choose to serve it solo, I suggest a squeeze of lime at the table. Will definitely be making this again.
I just purchased an 8 qt Instant Pot and read up enough to realize that there should be at least 2 cups of water in the pot to assure it reaches pressure. So I increased all ingredients by a third (amount x 4/3) and it turned out perfectly. Because I am a detailed-oriented type of person, just wanted to mention that there are no units for the golden raisins. I assumed it was "cup" and that seemed right.
Maybe it's supposed to be more like 2 1/2 cups of water for the brown basmati? My rice came out extremely underdone. The directions have rice to water ratio at 1:1, which didn't work. Recipe sounds good, and the flavors were good, but the rice was not pleasant to chew. White basmati might work better.
Hi Toni -
As this recipe was part of our Fast & Slow cookbook, we only tested it in an Instant Pot. Because the rice to water ratios are usually different on the stovetop than in the Instant Pot we can't easily transfer this recipe to a saucepan. we would recommend trying to combine this recipe's ingredients with the method and rice to water ratio of this brown rice pilaf - https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/brown-rice-chickpea-pilaf-cookish. Hope that helps!
Best,
The Milk Street Team
I made this for dinner. Its a good thing I have read everybody's comments. I had white basmati rice which I rinsed until the water run cleared. I have added water as much as it was instructed on the basmati rice packaging. It was 2 and 1/4 cup of water for 1 1/2 cup of rice. It came out perfect. Delicious. My family loved it. I do not know if green beans go with it but rice and meat was superb. Since this is Persian polow (we called it Plov in Baku), you can add other dry fruits to it and roasted/peeled chestnuts. Plov or polow usually cooked with lamb.
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This meal was excellent! I used a pound of ground beef and doubled the spices, but the same amount of rice and water as the recipe says. I wasn’t sure how to scale it up the liquid amount since it was in the instant pot. A lot of flavors and the beans were cooked perfectly. Bravo!