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Spanish Beef & Rice

Source of Recipe

Adapted from the Rice-A-Roni website


Recipe Introduction

This recipe is one that I used to make many years ago when we were newly married and extremely broke. We loved this and gobbled it up every couple of weeks. I hadn’t made it in YEARS – so long, in fact, that I didn’t even have it on this webpage. We happened to have a box of the Spanish Rice Rice-A-Roni and some thawed ground beef that needed to be cooked, so I thought of it and gave it a try. It was…ok. Not nearly as good as I remembered it being. Not nearly as good as I remembered it being. Oddly enough, when I reheated it and tried it again the next day, it was much better. Still not sure that I’ll be making this again anytime soon, but I wanted to save it here anyway. One thing that I will change if I DO make this again is the tomatoes. We find the texture hot chunks of tomato unpleasant. So, I think I will use the same amount of either crushed tomatoes or whole ones that I will crush myself. If you go look at the recipe at the Rice A Roni website, you’ll see that I’ve made some changes. I’ve recently realized at my advanced age (64) that Rice-A-Roni is inherently impossible to cook correctly because it is made of rice AND the thinnest pasta in the world. The rice takes 15-20 minutes of cooking to get tender and the pasta takes about 3 minutes. Therefore, it's never going to be "right" - either the rice will be underdone or the pasta will be mush. So, I don’t recommend cooking everything together the way the original recipe calls for.

Recipe Link: https://www.ricearoni.com/recipes/zesty_spanish_beef_and_rice

List of Ingredients

1 package RICE-A-RONI® Spanish Rice
1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 cups water
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup chopped onion



Recipe

In a large skillet cook the ground beef until it is browned and done. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Add the onion to the skillet and cook until tender and add to the ground beef.

Cook the rice mix according to the directions on the package. Make sure to test the rice at 15 minutes to see if it is ALMOST tender. It may need another few minutes. When it is just barely shy of tender, remove from heat and stir in the ground beef and onions. Mix well and return to the heat for a minute or two to heat. Serve immediately. Don’t worry if there is still a little liquid in the rice that hasn’t been absorbed – it will be absorbed into the rice and beef as it cools. Just serve with a slotted spoon.

Serves 6-8