With cubes of soft roasted sweet potato, strands of crispy onion, nutty brown rice, and sweet fragrant spices, this pilaf is a flavorful and versatile side dish! It will pair nicely with curry, in a mezze spread, or as the starting point for a bowl based meal.
It’s rare that I get so excited about a side dish, but just look at this! This is good stuff. It’s so tasty and flavorful with minimal ingredients; it is cheap, it is versatile and can find a home in any kind of Mediterranean or Indian style meal. I’ve enjoyed it with curry, I’ve enjoyed it with halloumi + tahini sauce, I’ve enjoyed it all on its own for lunch.
It’s full of nourishing ingredients and while it isn’t as easy to make as plain rice, it’s not too much of a chore if you have a little extra time and attention to give to your side dish. I promise we’ll make it worth your while.
What To Know About Your Ingredients
- Long grain rice works best here, and I prefer brown rice – the nuttiness and firmness gives a lovely contrast against the melty sweet potatoes. But go ahead and use white if you prefer!
- You want to cube your sweet potato into fairly uniform sized pieces, but don’t stress too much. It’s hard to chop a round vegetable super consistently. And that’s OK because you’ll get some smaller pieces going crispier and more caramelized, and some larger pieces staying softer, and that variation is quite nice.
- Red onion could be swapped for white or brown if necessary, but I do like red onion best for this dish. We will roast it with the sweet potato until it’s crisp and caramelized.
- I like to squeeze a little lemon juice over the dish, but this is optional, it’s still great without it. Lemon lovers may wish to go further and add some zest – that would be delightful.
- The spices we use are cumin, cinnamon and allspice. It’s warm and sweet and delish. You are very welcome to play around here and shift it in a way that suits you best or to match the flavor profile of your meal. For instance, if you’d rather swing it to Mexican, add cumin and coriander, and swap the lemon for lime.
- I add cilantro (fresh coriander) as a finishing touch, but parsley would also be great.
The Best Pan for the Job
You want a roasting dish that will comfortably fit your ingredients without overlap, but also without too much excess space at the bottom.
- As a guideline, you want something in the region of a 9×13 inch (20×33 cm) sized dish.
- The roasting pan I use, which you can see in the photos, is larger at 37 cm (15 inch) long. However – can you see how it’s curved? Our actual base surface area is smaller than that, so it works out.
- An enamel or metal pan is ideal, allowing the sweet potatoes and onions to roast well and roast quickly. But I have tried this with a glass Pyrex dish and it’s absolutely fine, it just takes longer to cook so bear that in mind if you’re using glass (or ceramic).
How to Use This Rice to Make an Easy Bowl Meal
Given how flavorful and textured this rice is, it makes a great base for a bowl meal. Here are my top recommendations for toppings. Just add a big scoop of the sweet potato rice to a bowl, pick something hearty to go on top + a lighter vegetable, add a sauce, and enjoy!
- A couple slices of fried halloumi or crumbled feta.
- Falafel or vegetarian meatballs.
- Roasted or pan fried portobello mushrooms or eggplant (or this oyster mushroom steak!).
- Sauteed kale, spinach, chard or any other greens.
- Roasted or smashed broccoli or cauliflower.
- Roasted tomatoes.
- Sauce ideas: I LOVE a tahini sauce here. Either the herby tahini sauce from this recipe, the vegan tahini drizzle from this recipe or the simple tahini yogurt sauce from this one all work great. Failing that, a store bought sauce such as labneh , hummus or tzaziki will do nicely.
Pairing Suggestions
One thing that excites me about this recipe is how well it will pair with so many of my other recipes! Here are some which I think would be perfect.
Sweet Potato Rice Pilaf
With cubes of soft roasted sweet potato, strands of crispy onion, nutty brown rice, and sweet fragrant spices, this pilaf is a flavorful and versatile side dish! It will pair nicely with curry, in a mezze spread, or as the starting point for a bowl based meal.
Ingredients
- olive or vegetable oil, for roasting
- 12 oz (350 g) cubed sweet potatoes, approximate – you can use whatever amount fits comfortably in your pan
- ½ large red onion
- 1 tsp cumin
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp allspice
- 1 cup (200 g) brown long grain or basmati rice, uncooked quantity – if you have some precooked rice, you want around 2.5 cups.
- 1 handful chopped cilantro / coriander, or parsley
- ½ lemon, for squeezing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F.
- Prepare your sweet potatoes and onions. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes and scatter in an oiled medium sized baking dish. Slice the onions into half rounds and add to the pan – don't separate them into individual slices, let them stick in their half moons as much as possible (this will mean they take longer to cook, and stay in synch with the sweet potatoes). You want the pan fairly full – not so much that the sweet potatoes and onions overlap, there should be a little space around them, but not a lot. If everything is too spaced out, the onions are likely to burn.Spray or drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper, and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
- If you are cooking brown rice, start that off immediately. If you are cooking white rice, you can wait until the oven's halfway mark.For this recipe, I like to cook my rice like pasta: Don't worry about measurements, just fill a medium-large saucepan with salted water and bring it to a boil, then add the rice to the water. Allow it to cook for 25-30 minutes for long grain brown rice or 8-10 minutes for long grain white rice. Be sure to taste test as you go. Once it's ready, drain it in a sieve (the kind you use for icing sugar!), shaking it a little to get all the water out. If the sweet potatoes aren't ready yet, return the rice to the pan and add a little drizzle of olive oil or a pat of butter. Allow to sit, covered, until the sweet potato is done.
- Once the sweet potatoes are tender and browning around the edges and the onions are browned and starting to crisp, remove from the oven.Sprinkle in the spices and mix through to get all of the sweet potatoes well coated. Assess how oily the pan is – if there's a little layer of olive oil on the bottom, we're fine. If it's a little dried out, let's add a little pour of oil or a big pat of butter now. (A nice layer of oil or butter will help distribute lots of flavor once we add the rice.) Place back in the oven for about a minute, just to bring out the flavor of the spices.
- Now add the rice to the pan with the sweet potatoes and mix through. We want to get all of the rice coated with the spiced oil / butter in the pan. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.
- Time for the finishing touches. Mix the chopped cilantro through the pan, and drizzle with a little lemon.
- Serve. You can serve this directly from the baking dish, or pour into a serving dish. Enjoy!
Calories: 347kcal, Carbohydrates: 55g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 8g, Sodium: 51mg, Potassium: 454mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 4g, Vitamin A: 12141IU, Vitamin C: 5mg, Calcium: 53mg, Iron: 2mg