Greek Rice Pan

When I'm looking through my kitchen's window I see the sun shining, I can hear the birds and I know it is Summer in Greece. Beside the Greek summer I also love Greek recipes and that's what I would like to talk about now.

Today's recipe needs some preparation the night before you want to eat it, but don't worry, it's not a lot. The measurements given are for two people.

This is what we need:

- 150g rice

- 1 bay leaf

- 300ml vegetable stock

- 2 big onions

- 1 garlic clove

- 2 table spoons of olive oil

- 1 green pepper

- 1 yellow pepper

- 200g canned tomatoes

- 100g feta cheese

- chili, thyme, oregano, basil and salt

That's it. This recipe will take approximately 45 minutes of preparation before the 'real' cooking can start. As it is now, the dish will be vegetarian, but if you want you can add meat, for example chicken.

We will start by soaking the rice in vegetable stock with the bay leaf over night, so it adopts the nice flavors. The next morning you take out the bay leaf and start boiling the rice on low heat, so we can focus on other tasks. While the rice is boiling prepare the onions and the garlic and then heat them in olive oil until they are translucent. Add sliced peppers, let it cook in the pan for a while and then season it. Once the rice is done mix everything together in the pan and add the tomatoes, the feta and the other spices except for the basil. Let it simmer for 5 minutes and check whether it needs any more spices. Then garnish with a few leaves of basil and serve.

Buon appetit!