Spanish Rice with Cilantro

March. The last weeks of year five. The crawfish are running. The azaleas are blooming. The pit is smoking. The cottage is yellow. The fig tree is budding. The journal is full. The family is whole. The insomnia is managed. The therapy is working. The business has eight people and a name on eight vans. The boy makes dark roux. The girl writes novels. The teenager drives a Corolla. The wife holds everything. The mother is alive. The brother builds things and says four words. The sister texts hearts. The father is dead and his gumbo is alive and the gumbo tastes like remembering and the remembering tastes like love.

Made the simplest possible dinner: rice and gravy. Pork roast, slow-cooked, the gravy from the drippings, over white rice. The Cajun national dish. Not gumbo. Not étouffée. Rice and gravy. The thing you eat when you're not trying to be anything except home. The thing that says: I am here. I am Cajun. I am fed. I am enough. Year five is done. The pot is on the stove. The gravy is in the rice. The family is at the table. Come eat, cher. We're still here.

When I sat down to write out what we actually ate that night — the night I closed the journal on year five — I almost didn’t bother with a recipe at all, because rice doesn’t need instructions. But then I thought about my boy watching me cook it, and I wanted something written down. This Spanish Rice with Cilantro isn’t the pork-dripping gravy version we had that evening, but it carries the same soul: toasted rice, something bright, something warm, something that smells like a kitchen with people in it. It’s the kind of dish you make when the point isn’t the dish — the point is the table.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges for serving

Instructions

Toast the rice. Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Add the dry rice and stir constantly for 3–4 minutes, until the grains turn golden and smell nutty. This step builds the base flavor — don’t rush it.
Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion to the pan and cook with the rice for 2 minutes, stirring, until the onion softens slightly. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Add tomatoes and broth. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices, then the chicken broth. Stir in the cumin, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.
Simmer covered. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and cover tightly with a lid. Cook undisturbed for 18–20 minutes, until the rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed. Resist lifting the lid early.
Rest and fluff. Remove from heat and let the rice rest, still covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff gently with a fork.
Finish with cilantro. Fold in the fresh cilantro. Taste and adjust salt. Serve immediately with lime wedges on the side.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spanish Rice with Cilantro — The Bowl That Says You’re Still Here