Amy's Brown Rice and Vegetable Bowl

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Jun 29, 2005

This is Amy's take on a good and standard dish known to vegans everywhere, brown rice and tofu. It's the kind of thing that traditions are made of: tender short-grain brown rice, gently flavored tofu, and various spices to tickle your fancy. Amy's Kitchen takes this classic a step further by adding caramelized onions, mushrooms, broccoli, and carrots. A quick glance at the ingredient list is an impressive repetition of the word Organic in front of nearly every single ingredient in this dish. Five minutes of nuclear bombardment revealed nicely cooked rice without gooeyness, and a soft pleasing texture. And the little florets of broccoli were exactly the way I like them: al dente (not too soft, not to hard, juuuust right).

The nutrition profile also reflects much of the reason that such a simple and plain dish can become such a mainstay of an entire culinary culture. You get 250 calories, 5 grams of fiber, 9 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat (and of course NO trans-fats to be found here!), only 1 gram saturated fat, 36 grams of total carbohydrates - it is rice after all! Not to mention, the 100% vitamin A - not too many foods can say that, in addition to some vitamin C, calcium and iron.

The only criticisms I could levy at this point would be a minor flavor imbalance, in that the caramelized onions, while very tasty in and of themselves, were rather overpowering for the more subtle flavors of the seasonings in the rice and tofu. Also, I only got three pieces of broccoli; being of the Broccoli Fan Club, I feel that more would not only zip up the flavor a bit, but would add some additional crunch to the dish. It was also not a dish that was able to fill me up completely.

On the outset, this may seem to be a pricey little venture, with one serving costing around $4.25. But if you consider spending the same amount at some greasy fast-food place, not only would you not receive the quality of ingredients and taste, you would not have a meal at all as healthy as this.

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