Chicken and Beets with Wild Rice Recipe

Okay, so I just discovered that things I have been calling "Pilaf" aren't accurate. According to Wikipedia pilaf is, "a dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat, is browned in oil, and then cooked in a seasoned broth. The English term pilaf is borrowed directly from Turkish..." Hence my name change from pilaf to wild rice.

Without further ado, here is the recipe. I should warn you that I only made this once so I consider it to still be in its test phase and not all the ingredient amounts may be that accurate. I go by the old,"less is more" approach 'cause you can always add more but you can't take away less.

Oh, and I attempt to use local, organic ingredients whenever possible to avoid all the pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones, yada, yada...

Here you go:
two uncooked chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1-2 cups cooked beets, chopped into bite size pieces (see previous post on how to properly cook beets)
1/2 cup wild rice (the dark hearty stuff)
1/2 cup basmati rice (brown or white)
1 cup beet greens, chopped
1 medium zucchini chopped however you like
6-8 cloves of garlic (you can never have too much garlic)
1/2 cup chopped onion OR a large handful of shallots, cut in halves
Thyme (I used dried but I bet it would be better with fresh stuff)
Curry powder
Tamari sauce
Sesame oil
Salt and pepper

Cook the rice according to package directions. With mine I cook the wild rice first for 20 mins then add the basmati to it and cook it all for another 20 minutes.

While the rice is cooking prepare the chicken by marinading it in Tamari sauce (tamari sauce is basically soy sauce but with no gluten in it).

Chop or press (with a garlic press--I love those things) 3-4 cloves of garlic into a large frying pan (I like to us my big ol' iron skillet) and add about a tablespoon of sesame oil (sesame oil is an ideal cooking oil for high temperatures as it doesn't break down like olive oil which can release free radicals which basically cause cancer so there you have it, go out and get yourself some sesame oil).

Add the beet greens and half of your onion/shallots to the garlic and oil into the pan and cook it at med/high until the greens start to get a little limp (only a few minutes). Add a dash of tamari sauce (just enough to lightly cover everything but not too much to drench it--I'd guess about 1-2 tablespoons).

Then add the chicken and zucchini. Cook until the chicken is done, add some thyme to taste, a bit more onion (but not all of it), the remaining garlic, about 1/2 teaspoon of curry and some salt and pepper (careful on the salt since tamari sauce is already pretty salty).

Once the rice is done, drain the excess water and then cook on low heat while adding the remaining onion, some sesame oil (about 1/2 tablespoon), a dash of thyme and salt. This will slightly brown the rice. Only cook for a minute or two so as not to burn the rice.

Plate up the rice and add the chicken and zucchini mix on top. Add the beets on top of this. I made the mistake of adding the beets to the chicken and zucchini mixture and got red everything! So it's best to keep them separate and add them to the final dish.

Beets are fantastic vegetables and are beneficial in preventing certain types of cancers, protect against heart disease and decrease inflammation. If you want more information on the health benefits of beets go to:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49

Enjoy!