Jollof Rice has been stirring the debate on its authenticity among the different countries that hold this dish to heart for quite some time now. Roots of this dish trace back to the people of the Wolof empire who occupied the Senegambian region . Lets just say this dish has its history and is a prominent menu item in Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and other West African gatherings. Jollof or Benachin is a “one pot” rice dish cooked with tomatoes, vegetables, broths, spices and sometimes meats.
Some will say my recipe is very minimalistic ( my goal) and that so many jollof rice rules have been broken ( No rules in my kitchen, if it taste good, that’s good enough for me.) The flavor profiles were developed from two sauces from EssieSpice , the Mango Chili Medley and the Coco for Garlic sauce. No offense if this recipe totally deviates from your childhood memories; I wanted a quick , easy and simple dinner. My mom would probably tell me this dish is not Jollof Rice.
Playing with different spices and sauces to add my own touch to dishes from childhood brings me great pleasure. So I guess traditional does not apply to me this time. The recipe that follows is vegan up until the addition of suya style skirt steak which was cooked separately. My husband does not eat meat, so this is sort of a side dish to the Jollof rice.
Super easy jollof rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup mixed vegetables
- 2 Tbsp Coco for garlic
- 1 Tbsp Mango Chili Medley
- 1 table spoon ground vegetable Bouillon.
Method
- Rinse rice with warm water to remove excess starch
- In a medium skillet, combine all ingredients, mix well, cover and bring to boil.
- Lower temperature to a gentle simmer and cook until rice is tender and all broth has been absorbed. Feel free to add more broth if you want rice cooked longer.
- Stir and serve.
Notes
The suya style steak is just a last addition. Steak was simply seasoned with Meko Dry rub from Essiespice.com, seared to get a nice brown and then oven baked. Omit and the recipe is vegan
Not the traditional ‘jollof rice’ as I know, but really simple, and easy to cook yours. Yummy, the pic says.
Thanks much! Oh I definitely cut corners with this one☺️ but rules are meant to be broken…..sometimes