This dish is a combination of some of my favourite Middle Eastern and Indian dishes. Part biryani, part pilaf and part fatteh.

This recipe actually started off its journey as mujadara – a deliciously simple dish of rice, opinions and lentils. I decided to play around with the original dish by trying to make it into something more substantial that would work well as a main meal. I added some fried cauliflower because who doesn’t love friend cauliflower? At the same time I made a FODMAP friendly version for my partner. As onion is the star of Mujadara, it really needed something delicious to replace it. I happened to have some gluten free pita bread at home so thought I would fry that up and add it. Not really a replacement for the sweet onions but it certainly brought the crunch factor. I also added some currants to replace to sweetness lost from omitting the onions.

When we sat down to test the recipe, I was very surprised to discover that I liked the FODMAP version better! As a massive onion and garlic fan that never happens! I like how light and fresh it tasted plus the overall texture combination was perfect. So I put the mujadara on the backburner and focused on the developing this recipe for Dear Fig instead. It now no longer even resembled mujadara! It has the spiced rice of a biryani, the nuts and herbs of a pilaf and the pita, pine nuts and yoghurt from a fatteh. All of my favourite things! A few traditional home cooks may shake their heads at my very liberal take on classic dishes but I hope they forgive me after tasting this!

This recipe has ended up not being FODMAP friendly, but as usual I have provided an easy alternations. I did however decide to keep the onions out of the final recipe. You need to slow cook them and it adds an good extra half an hour and I am trying to keep my recipes simple! By all means feel free to add some onions if you desire – cook them out with the butter and oil at the start of making the rice. The recipe is filling enough for dinner on its own but also makes a great side dish. It goes well with crispy falafels, cabbage rolls, baked eggplant or a vegetable tagine.

Loaded Middle Eastern Spiced Rice

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Makes: Serves four

Dietary guide: FODMAP friendly, vegan and gluten free variations provided - see end of the recipe

Ingredients

For the rice

1 cup of long grain rice

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of garlic oil

2 teaspoon of butter or coconut oil

1 ½ Massel chicken stock cubes

1 ½ tablespoons of currants

¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder

3 cloves

1 star anise

3 cardamom pods

2 cinnamon quills

¼ teaspoon of freshly ground cardamom*

1 teaspoon of freshly ground cumin*

½ teaspoon freshly ground all spice*

For the nuts and flat bread

1/3 cup of roughly chopped almonds

2 tablespoons of pine nuts

1 ½ large rounds of Lebanae flat bread

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter

For the cauliflower

1 cup of cauliflower cut into very small florets

1 teaspoon of turmeric powder

1 teaspoon of curry powder

Either 2 tablespoons of olive oil for pan frying (or enough vegetable oil for deep frying)

To serve

1 tablespoon of chopped coriander

1 large handful of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

Greek yoghurt or garlic yoghurt to serve

* I use freshly roasted ground spices. If you are using raw ground spices instead, I recommend you add these just after the butter has melted but before you add the rest of the ingredients for the rice. Cook out the spices for an extra few minutes to help release their flavour and then continue on with the recipe.

Method

For the rice: First pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees for the following step. Meanwhile make the rice. Place the butter and oil in a saucepan with a heavy based bottom – make sure it has a lid that fits well. Heat on a medium heat until the butter has nearly melted. Add all the other ingredients for the rice expect the stock cubes into the saucepan with the butter and oil. Heat for about 3 minute stirring a few times. Meanwhile, prepare the stock by melting the stock cubes with half a cup of hot water. Give it a good mix to break up the stock cube and then add one cup of cold water.

Pour this into the rice, give it a quick stir and turn the heat up to high. When the rice starts to boil, place the lid tightly on the saucepan and turn the heat down as low as you can get it. Leave it for twenty minutes, turn of the heat and let it sit for another ten minutes. You might want to have a quick check of the rice at this point to make sure it is cooked; cooking times can vary depending on your saucepan and how low a temperature you stove goes to.

For the toasted nuts and pita bread: Place the pine nuts and almonds into two separate small oven trays - as the pine nuts cooks quicker than the almonds they need to be cooked separately. Roughly tear up the Lebanese flat bread into small bite size pieces and place on an oven tray with sides. Season the bread well, add the oil and butter (melt the butter first in the microwave) and mix. Place all three trays in the oven (you can do this in batches using the one tray but it will take longer).

After about 10 minutes, check on the nuts. The pine nuts should be ready but the almonds will probably need another 5 minutes. The nuts are ready when they have just started to go golden brown. The bread will take longer – about 25 minutes (give it a stir once throughout this cooking process). The bread is ready when it had gone a rich golden colour. Set the bread and nuts aside.

For the cauliflower: Coat the cauliflower with the turmeric and curry powder by tossing it well in a bowl. There are two options for cooking the cauliflower. One is deep frying small batches of the cauliflower in very hot vegetable until it’s golden. Alternately, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a fry pan over a high heat. Once it’s very hot, add half the cauliflower and shake the pan until the cauliflower is in one even layer. Season and wait a few minutes. Flip the pan to toss around the cauliflower and cook for another few minutes or until the cauliflower is getting nice and charred in places. Remove the cauliflower and set aside. Wipe down the pan and repeat this process with the remaining cauliflower.

To assemble: Take the lid of the still warm rice and give it a fluff with a wooden spoon to break up any rice that’s clumped together. Add the cauliflower, nuts and herbs reserving a little of each to sprinkle on top for garnish if our wish. Give it a gentle mix. Spread out the yoghurt onto the bottom of individual plates or one large serving plate. Alternatively you can serve the yoghurt on the side. Gently scoop out the rice onto the plate/s. Top with the toasted Lebanese bread and the remaining nuts and herbs for garnish. And you are done!

Gluten free variations: Use gluten free Lebanese bread. If you can’t find any, use regular gluten free flat bread.

Vegan variation: Replace the butter in the recipe with additional olive oil or coconut oil. Omit the yoghurt and replace it with vegan yoghurt.

FODMAP friendly variation: Use gluten free Lebanese bread. If you can’t find any, use regular gluten free flat bread. Replace the cauliflower with broccoli heads (unless you can tolerate cauliflower). The other ingredients that can be an issue, such as almonds should be in low enough quantities for you to tolerate but check with the Monash app if you are unsure.