One-pan Buttery Baked Mediterranean Rice Recipe with basmati, dill, lemon and feta
A Greek-inspired pilaf that produces fluffy grains of rice infused with roasted Greek flavours.
Servings: 4 people as a main, 6 as a side
Ingredients
- 800 g cherry tomatoes
- 250 g shallots peeled and sliced in half lengthways (or onions, peeled and sliced into wedges)
- 12 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole
- 200 g feta cheese roughly crumbled into 3cm pieces
- 1 lemon zest pared (peeled into strips) and remainder juiced
- 40 g dill roughly chopped
- 50 ml olive oil
- 50 g butter
- 400 g basmati rice
- 800 ml boiling water
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180℃/gas mark 4/160℃ fan
- Place the tomatoes, shallots, garlic, feta, lemon zest, half the dill and olive oil in a high-sided casserole dish (about 20x30cm). Season liberally with salt and pepper and toss to coat all the ingredients. Evenly place small knobs of the butter on top, using all 50g, and then place in the oven for 1 hour until the vegetables are soft and have taken on some colour.
- Remove the dish from the oven and increase the temperature to 240℃/gas mark 9/220℃ fan. Without stirring anything, sprinkle the raw rice evenly over the vegetables. Top with 1/2 tsp salt and plenty of pepper, then pour over the boiling water. Seal the dish tightly with foil (you don’t want any steam to escape) and place in the oven for 25 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
- Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Remove the foil, stir through the remaining dill and lemon juice and serve.