Dirty Rice

My kids love the name of this. If anyone knows how the name came to be I'd love to know. Who names a meal you eat, "dirty"?

Anyhow, after reading about it on Shannon's blog (my gosh, do I just seem like some kind of stalker here with Nourishing Days?) I looked up a recipe for it. After all, I'm a California girl- born and raised. I may be a mountain mama, but I'm a Pacific Northwest Mountain Mama, not a southern one.
And this mountain mama had never even heard of it.

So I found this. Of course, I found a few other recipes for it too but you usually can't go wrong with a Paula Deen recipe. They're always yummy.

Then I made it. And we all liked it. Then I modified it. And we all loved it.

Now, since I'm not southern my version is probably nothing like a southern mama would make, especially since mine doesn't contain liver. But, pair it with some beans for dinner and you've got yourself a meal that even my "mostly meat" loving husband loves to sit down to.

~Northern Mountain Mama's Dirty Rice~
1 1/2 c organic brown rice
3 c organic chicken stock
salt
1 organic green bell pepper
2 stalks organic celery
1 organic onion (medium sized)
2 Tb fresh parsley leaves (or 2 tsp dried if you don't have fresh)
2 boxes Applegate Farms Chicken and Sage Sausage (I know, I know, I am totally lazy here. You can substitute 1lb of seasoned ground pork if you'd prefer.)
salt and pepper

In saucepan, combine stock, rice and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn down to low to cook for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, chop all veggies and set aside in bowl. Next, chop parsley and set aside.
Cook sausage in skillet. If you're using the links, you're going to have to chop them up, otherwise the ground pork cooks up nicely as well.
Once your meat is cooked, or just before, add bowl of chopped veggies to skillet and sauté until onions are translucent.

Place meat, veggies, and cooked rice in large serving bowl. Add chopped parsley and some salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well and serve with beans and sauerkraut.


You don't really have to serve it with kraut, but we do. Mostly just because we love kraut. In this house, we eat kraut with everything. Yes, even breakfast sometimes.

Oh, and since this is traditionally (I believe) a spicier dish and I have littles that don't love spicy like I do, I make the rice this way and that add siracha sauce on top of mine.
Siracha is another one of those things that I could add to almost any meal. Yes, even breakfast.


Have you heard of dirty rice? (Or was it just me?) Do you make yours a certain way?