Mexican cuisine dates back to 7000 BC. Before this land was colonized, Mayan Toltec and Aztec cultures were to be found in the areas that are now known as Belize, Panama, Guatemala and, of course, Mexico. Camotes (sweet potatoes) and yucca were the main ingredients used in almost every meal together with corn, cacao, chili peppers, avocados, papayas, tomatoes, and squashes among many others.

In 1521, the Spaniards reached Mexico. Hernan Cortés led the colonization of Mexican lands, pulling his ship into the port of Veracruz. He found all these different ingredients and the many recipes that the natives had and took them to Spain. In return, the settlers brought with them farm animals like chickens, beef, pigs, dairy products like cheese and milk, grains like wheat, rice and also nuts and garlic.

Today’s Mexican food

Nowadays, Mexico has a wide variety of staple recipes and a perfect blend of Spanish and native cuisine.

Most famous dishes are based on corn, chile peppers, tortillas, rice and some protein like chicken or beef and cheese. Spices cannot be forgotten! Mexican cuisine is also known for its special and unique flavors. 

As you can see, Mexico has all the ingredients needed to carry out a healthy and nutritious diet: proteins, grains, dairy, spices and many different vegetables.

Burrito bowls, for example, are made with lettuce, tomatoes, chili peppers, avocados, salsa, brown rice, black beans and grilled chicken. This combination is exquisite and provides your body with carbs, protein, and fats. Dishes like that can frequently be found in Mexican cuisine! Another great example is Mexican rice. Rice is so versatile that it can be eaten as a complement to another ingredient or as the base for any dish. Keep on reading to find out an easy Mexican rice recipe to master the best Latin flavor!

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Basmati rice.
• 1.5 Cups vegetable broth or chicken broth.
• 1 Yellow corn.
• 1 Tomato.
• 1/2 Jalapeno pepper.
• 1 Red onion.
• 2 Garlic cloves.
• 1/4 Teaspoon cumin powder.
• 1/4 Teaspoon cayenne pepper.
• 1 Lime.
• Cilantro.
• Olive oil.
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions

1. First, rinse and drain the rice. Let it soak in water for about fifteen or twenty minutes.
2. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan over medium to high heat. Chop a red onion and two garlic cloves and sauté them for a couple of minutes. They should be translucent but not brown or golden! Add the jalapeño chopped; if you like spice and heat in your meals, add the seeds of the pepper, but if you enjoy mild recipes, remove them. Cook for another minute.
3. Add the soaked rice and saute for three to four minutes. The grains should be translucent as well and well coated with olive oil. Chop tomato and add it together with the yellow corn kernels.
4. Now it’s time to add the spices! Add the cayenne pepper, cumin powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Stir and combine all the ingredients together. 
5. If you enjoy a vegetarian diet, add a vegetable broth but if you eat meat, chicken broth will go perfectly well with this recipe! After adding the liquids, turn the heat to high.
6. Cover the saucepan and let it cook for about ten to twelve minutes. After this time has passed, lower the heat and let it simmer for five extra minutes. If you notice that the rice is still not thoroughly cooked, leave it for another five minutes. 
7. Turn the heat off and let the rice sit for about 10 to 15 minutes (saucepan covered). 
8. Use a fork for fluffing the rice gently. To give this dish its final Latin touch, before serving, add some lime juice and chopped parsley on top.

This easy and delicious vegetarian Mexican rice can be made within an hour and it is a great recipe to eat as a main dish or as a side dish. It can also be used to stuff bell peppers and increase the number of vegetables you include in your diet! 

It has the right amount of fats, potassium, vitamin A and C, carbohydrates, fiber, iron, protein and calcium. 

Give this typical Mexican meal a try and surprise your diners, you’ll not only eat fantastic but also healthy!

Mexican cuisine today is the result of great influences and a proficient combination of what’s inherited and what’s imported. The area that is now known as Mexico was inhabited by ancient communities that worried a great deal about food production and conservation. They mastered plantations and had a great understanding of how earth cycles work as well as the growth of vegetables such as tomatoes, potatoes, some seeds and, in short, whatever the earth was willing to offer.

In with the old and the new

At the same time, Mexico was a conquered land which received not only new inhabitants, but also new traditions and new ingredients from the Spanish. Among some others, rice is the one that became a staple in this gastronomy and is now found in most Mexican recipes. 

Together with beans, rice is as versatile as it can be and that’s one of the reasons it was so well-received by the people in the area. Rice and beans is probably the most common dish in this country, but there’s of course much more to Mexican cuisine.

Nutritious and delicious

In time, and with the help of stereotypes, Mexican gastronomy got kind of reduced to tacos, tortilla chips and tequila, (as if that was a combination one could keep for longer than two days straight!) but the truth is Mexican food comes with a not-too-short nutritious list. 

For every recipe you will probably find what can be considered a grassier version of it or at least a less healthy one, but that’s no more true than the fact that every single recipe can be healthier if you know which ingredients to add and which ones to leave out. 

Nowadays, there’s even a vegan version of almost every recipe here. Proteins, fiber, minerals and more can be easily found in your dish following some simple steps.

A matter of habits

Nutrition has not only to do with ingredients, it also has to do with habits and one cannot exist without the others because you might learn how to make Mexican rice healthier, but there’s no point in doing so if you’re not going to change your key cooking habits. 

Ingredients are as important as the methods. So, here is a fresh recipe for you to try out without feeling guilty of choosing the delicious factor over the nutritious one.

A healthy and tasty Mexican rice

Ingredients:

• Two cups of rice.
• Three cups of vegetable broth or,
• 1 vegetable flavor cube and three cups of water.
• 1 cup of tomato sauce.
• Onions.
• Peppers (red and any color you might want to add)
• Extra-virgin olive oil.
• Chili powder.
• Salt.
• Pepper.

Preparation:

1. Start by preheating a medium-size pan and pour some extra-virgin olive oil in it.
2. Slice some onions and dice up some red bell peppers. You can also use some green and yellow ones if you want to make it more colorful. Chop four cloves of garlic.
3. Add everything to the pan, season with salt and chili powder and sauté until the onion is translucent (which will take no more than 2-3 minutes). You’ll start feeling the aroma of the seasoning here.
4. Then add the rice and mix everything together. Cook for a while until the rice is browned.
5. Now it’s time for the liquids and here you’ll want to add a cup of tomato sauce and two cups of vegetable broth. Make sure both blend together and stir so that the rest of the ingredients get soaked. Season with some pepper.
6. Bring everything to a boil. Cover the pan, lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook until the rice is done, for about twenty minutes.
7. In the meantime, do not lift the lid unless to check if more liquid is needed. If so, you can add an extra cup of vegetable broth.
8. Try the rice and once it is done, turn the heat off and let everything rest, covered, for ten minutes. You could also wrap the pan with some foil paper, but the lid is enough if you don’t have any.
9. Serve and enjoy.

Mexican rice is a perfect side dish which you can combine with some bean burger. If you’re not vegan but still want to make this a healthy side dish, you can combine it with some fatless pork beef or some chicken breast.

History, conquests and globalization have made it clear that culture is a broad concept which can be approached from many different angles. Some of them blur the line that defines it more so than others and, in some cases, we can be thankful for that. Yes, of course we can be thankful for the highly influenced and influential cuisines and gastronomy that we can enjoy around the world.

The best of both worlds

Mexico and its gastronomy are not the exception as it has what we can call the best of both worlds. This country is famous for many things which, come to think about it, are as old as the country itself because they are linked to the communities that lived there hundreds of years ago. These communities were pretty self-sufficient, they developed great ways of planting and harvesting and became quite efficient on the topic.

In the same way, truth be told, they succeeded at taking what the conquest brought along and making it theirs. They adapted the new and welcomed everything in a way that seemed their own, as if it had been their way all along. This happened in different areas of culture, but we can definitely point out some evidence of this mixture in their gastronomy. Mexico had the vegetables, the beans and Spain brought along the oils and the rice.

The red rice quandary

Now, we must know a thousand recipes that include rice all over the world and the origins of this particular ingredient can be discussed some other day. But there’s something quite fascinating in how popular rice became after a while.

This ingredient is definitely not Mexican, nor is it Spanish, but they got it first and they definitely introduced it in this area. In spite of this, the communities living there made their own dishes combining both vegetables and beans together with rice.

One of the most popular side-dishes in Mexico: arroz rojo (red rice) helped raise the confusion. Red rice is also called Mexican rice, but it doesn’t stop there. All over the world, if you ask for some Spanish rice, you’ll get the same dish.

Why is that? Well, it probably has to do with two things. First, the fact that rice was indeed brought by the Spanish, but also because that’s the language spoken in Mexico. Spanish in that sense, does not make reference to the country in Europe, it makes reference to Mexico’s first language. Mexico and most of the Americas, for that matter. The reasons for the mix up don’t really matter, the true name of this meal is Mexican rice and here’s the recipe for you to try out!

Mexican Arroz Rojo

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil.
• 1 can of tomato sauce.
• 1 onion.
• 2 cups of chicken broth.
• 2 cups of rice.
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• Cumin seeds.
• Peppercorns.
• Cilantro.
• Salt.
• Pepper.

Preparation:

1. Under cold water, rinse two cups of rice. Repeat two or three times. Make sure you completely drain the rice.
2. In a small bowl, place some cumin seeds together with some peppercorns and grind them.
3. Slice an onion and chop two cloves of garlic.
4. Take a big-size pan and preheat it to a medium heat. Pour some extra-virgin olive oil and pour two cups of rice. Toast it to a medium-low heat so it doesn’t burn. Cook and stir until it starts turning brown.
5. Add the previously sliced onion, and saté for a couple of minutes.
6. Add the chopped garlic cloves and stir. Garlic burns rather quickly so just sauté for a minute or so.
7. Add the crushed seeds and pepper and keep sauteing.
8. Add a cup of tomato sauce and mix everything together. Season with salt and pepper to your liking.
9. Add two cups of chicken broth and give everything a good mix. Make sure the liquids blend in.
10. Simmer the mix and bring everything to a boil, you can cover your pan with a lid. Once it boils, reduce heat to minimum and let it cook for about twenty minutes. Do not take the lid out.
11. After that time, turn the heat off and, with the lid still on, let it sit for about ten minutes.
12. Lift the lid, give it a taste and season if necessary. Top it with some fresh cilantro and serve.

This dish goes perfect as an accompaniment for chicken!