Arroz verde, Mexican green rice

Mexican green rice, arroz verde, is an easy and delicious way to add lots of fantastic flavor so that your side truly shines. This tasty, colorful rice is perfect in burritos, with enchiladas and more.

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While plain rice can be great to soak up the flavors of whatever you serve it with, it's also worth making it that bit more interesting sometimes, too. Just a few additions can add delicious flavor and color, from a simple South African yellow rice and veggie-loaded spanakorizo, Greek spinach rice, to the slightly more involved Persian sweet rice, shirin polow.

This Mexican green rice gets it's color from a puree that you add in during cooking that infuses the rice with lots of flavor as well. The end result is fluffy, flavorful grains that I could honestly eat just as they are, but that are also great with lots of dishes, too.

Rice in Mexican cooking

Rice was introduced to Mexico by the Spanish in the 16th century and while it will unlikely never take the crown that corn has as most popular grain, it has still become a commonly used ingredient.

Mexican cuisine generally uses long grain rice and in most cases, dishes use the pilaf style of preparing it. Pilaf is believed to have originated in Persia and is a method used in many Mediterranean and Central Asian countries, as well as elsewhere.

The pilaf method essentially involves toasting the rice first in fat before adding flavor and liquid. This toasting adds flavor and helps the grains to separate more so the end dish is more fluffy rather than with clumps.

The most common way to flavor the rice in Mexico is arroz rojo, also called Mexican rice (or sometimes Spanish rice in other places) and it's what you may be familiar with from many Mexican restaurants. It uses tomato, onion and garlic to add flavor.

But you will also find regional dishes like arroz amarillo (yellow rice) in the Yucatan, colored with annatto, and arroz a la tumbada with seafood in Veracruz. This tasty arroz verde that is believed to have originated in Veracruz but you'll also find it enjoyed more widely. And for good reason, as it's easy and delicious.

Ingredients in arroz verde 

This dish has a relatively simple set of ingredients:

• Rice - the star! As mentioned above, you generally make this with long grain rice.
• Poblano pepper - this is the main flavor and color component to the dish. It's a relatively mild chili bit with lots of flavor, particularly when roasted/charred as you do here. 
• Cilantro (coriander) - this adds a lovely extra fresh flavor. 
• Spinach - this is optional, but does help to add a little more green color to the end dish.
• Onion - this provides the aromatic base. 
• Garlic - this, too, adds aromatic flavor. You can skip if you prefer, but I like using a little.
• Chicken stock/ broth - this is the main liquid component to cook the rice, but adds more flavor that using just water. You can also use vegetable stock if you want to keep it vegetarian. 
• Oil - to toast the rice in before you add the liquid. 

How to make Mexican green rice

This dish has a couple steps but it's all easy and can be done in stages. The first part is preparing the green sauce that adds all that wonderful flavor to the rice. This is essentially blending the ingredients in a blender, but you have a little prep before you can do that.

First, you need to char the poblano pepper to both allow you to remove the skin and for the flesh to soften. You can do this over a flame (either grill or gas stovetop) or alternatively, roast in the oven. Once the skin is going black in patches and the pepper is noticeably softened, place the pepper in a bag to sweat as it cools. Then, rub the skin off and open up and remove the seeds.

After that, blend up the sauce ingredients ready for the next step. Add a little stock if you need to in order for it to blend smoothly.

To make the rice, warm the oil, toast the rice then add the green puree. Let it simmer a few minutes so that the puree ingredients can cook a little. You will see the mixture start to darken in color and thicken.

Then, add the stock and let the rice cook until it is all absorbed. You don't stir at this point, just let it cook and then fluff up at the end. You might find the green mixture is slightly concentrated on the top but don't worry, it will mix through when you stir.

Serving ideas

This rice is a versatile side that can pair with many dishes, but goes particularly well with enchiladas or to use as part of a burrito filling. It works well with beef dishes like carne asada, pork or chicken as well as various vegetables.

Since it has a good amount of flavor, it's good when your main is maybe a little plainer, but also works when you have a sauce, as long as the flavor goes. You don't have to add cheese on top, but it pairs really well and adds a nice contrasting flavor.

Mexican green rice, arroz verde, is a wonderfully colorful and flavorful way to make your rice side that bit more special. It's maybe an extra step, but it's easy to make and well worth the slight bit more effort. So be sure to make it for your next Mexican meal, or whenever you can.

Try these other tasty rice dishes:

• Nam khao, Lao crispy rice salad - a deliciously flavorful dish with great textures, too.
• Portuguese duck rice, arroz de pato - a little more involved, but it's a meal in itself and packed with wonderful flavors.
• Chashu chahan, Japanese fried rice which is great not only for leftover rice but leftover chashu pork. Easy and with great tasty flavors.
• Plus get more side dishes and Mexican recipes in the archives.

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