Here’s a delightful brown rice dish that’s very tasty and easy to make. ! created it to serve with my recipe for Roasted Asian-Style Lean Pork Tenderloin but it’s delicious as a side for many Asian recipes or even a simple beef, chicken or fish recipe. I’m using my favorite kind of rice, Basmati brown. The skinny for 1 serving is only 95 calories, 1.8 grams of fat and 2 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1½ teaspoons sesame oil or canola oil

1 cup Basmati brown rice, see shopping tip

½ red bell pepper (1 cup) seeded and chopped

3 green onions, sliced

½ tablespoon ginger (from a jar)

1 (8-ounce) can pineapple chunks, unsweetened, undrained and cut each piece in half

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

1¼ cups water

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick pan until hot. Turn the temperature down to medium. Add rice, red pepper, green onion, ginger and onions and stir constantly until the rice begins to brown, about five minutes. Remove pan from the heat.

2. Add soy sauce, undrained pineapple and water. Stir to blend.

3. Bring the rice mixture to a boil. Cover pan, turn down heat to simmer and cook for 35-40 minutes or until the rice is tender and the water is absorbed. Let sit for five minutes and then fluff with a fork before serving.

Makes 5 servings (about 3/4 cup each)

Food Fact
Basmati rice literally translated means ”queen of fragrance.” It’s been grown in the foothills of the Himalayas for thousands of years. It’s nutty like flavor and aroma is attributed to the fact that the grain is aged to decrease its moisture content. It’s a long grain rice with a fine texture.

Healthy Benefit
Brown rice is a good source of magnesium, which helps to maintain proper blood pressure.  It also contains a fair amount of fiber, iron, niacin, thiamine and vitamin B6.

Shopping Tip
Basmati brown rice can be found in most supermarkets either in the rice aisle or health food aisle. I bought it at Trader Joe’s.

Chopped or crushed ginger, in a jar, can be found in the produce section near garlic, in a jar.

Weight Watchers (old points) 2
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 2