A simple rice pilaf made with celery, onion, carrots and almonds. It’s a great side dish or even a meal on its own.

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove crushed garlic
1 stalk of celery, diced
1 or 2 carrots, diced
1 cup long-grain rice
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Heat oil in a deep skillet or saucepan on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, celery, carrots and rice. Cook until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add rice and cook for another minute. Add broth and turn heat to high until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 20 minutes or until liquid absorbed and rice is tender. Stir in almonds before serving.

Tony’s friend was coming over for dinner one night, so Tony was going to help me make the meal. Apparently his friend gave him some suggestions of what he could make, and this pilaf was one of his ideas. Well sort of. Tony provided me with a bag of almonds and said his friend suggested we could make pilaf with some celery and these almonds. Tony was busy putting the pork tenderloin on the barbeque, so I took care of the pilaf. I must say, the almonds were a great idea! It ended up being a very nice side dish that everyone really enjoyed. I used basmati rice that time and it worked really well. This time all I had was converted rice, which was okay too but I think I like basmati better for this recipe. I used it for the kids’ lunches the next day, and they ate it all up. You could also make wraps with it, just fill up a tortilla with pilaf and lettuce, then roll it up. You’ve got lunch!