Yellow saffron rice is a delicious, easy-on-the-tummy kind of dish, so I have enjoyed incorporating it into the gastritis diet I’ve developed and followed over the last year. I had been a sufferer of chronic gastritis for a number of years, but it took me a while even to understand what my pain was (I thought for many months it might be a respiratory infection because my ribs felt ablaze!), and a few more years to understand how my diet could fundamentally affect how I was feeling. Nowadays, I am living my best life, able to enjoy each day without any antacids or tummy meds, as I continue to monitor my foods and develop new, tasty recipes.
As is very apparent, this site had been a pickling and fermenting recipe site for years before I started posting these recipes. But actually, I think the gastritis and gut-friendly recipes are also great for fermented-food lovers, because fermented-food lovers are so often interested in improving their gut health or just like honest-to-goodness real food. Just as fermented, probiotic foods can be an important part of a gut-healthy diet, so too are natural, whole foods which aren’t acidified. Acidic foods place greater strain on our digestive system and can eventually wear it down. I really wanted to heal my gut so maybe, on rare occasion, I could enjoy some of these more acidic foods. But I’ve really gotten used to life without sour foods, and actually rather enjoy all the flavor I’ve been able to work into these dishes while still sticking to some fundamental gut-healing principles.
At the same time, these recipes are never intended to be exclusively for those with gut issues. This is my take on a classic, festive Persian dish, and there’s minimal modifications I employed to make it gastritis-compliant, and not even an ounce of flavor is lost! If you aren’t on any special diet and want a great pickle accompaniment to this, actually this pickle recipe is just for you: Torshi Makhloot (Persian mixed pickles).
Yield:
Serves 6 (as a side)
You will need:
- Knife & cutting board
- Peeler
- Measuring cups & spoons
- Large saucepan (or Dutch oven) with lid
- Strainer/colander for rice
- Wooden spoon
- Mortar & pestle
- Small/medium bowl
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Basmati rice (sub with long-grain white rice as needed)
- 8 cups water, salted
- 1 medium potato (e.g. Russet, Idaho), peeled and cut into 1/4″ slices
- 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp cumin seeds, coarsely crushed by hand or in mortar & pestle (can sub with a scant 1/2 tsp ground cumin)
- 3-5 small pats of organic, grassfed ghee (or sub with 3-4 tsp EVOO or avocado oil)
- Pinch saffron (1/4 tsp)
- 1.5 TBSP warm water
- Salt to taste (coarse or sea salt recommended)
- Garnish: several fronds of parsley, minced; toasted then coarsely crushed cumin seeds (optional)
Directions:
1.) Place rice in bowl and rinse with water. Remove water and wash again. Wash the rice until the water runs clean, then drain the rice.
2.) In large saucepan or Dutch oven, bring lightly salted 8 cups water to a boil over high heat. Once boiling rapidly, add the rice and stir in. Allow to cook for 7 minutes in all from the time the rice is added, regardless of how long it takes the water to return to a boil. Stir a couple times.
3.) While the rice cooks, peel and slice the potato.
4.) Once the rice has cooked 7 minutes, strain but don’t rinse.
5.) Wipe the saucepan or Dutch oven dry and place over a high heat. Once heated, add the TBSP oil and spread it around the bottom of the saucepan and allow to get hot. Add the potato slices evenly so that as many are placed at the bottom of the pan as will fit. The potatoes should sizzle. Sprinkle the potatoes with coarse salt (suggested) and the cumin seeds.
6.) Add the parboiled rice to the potatoes evenly, but do not pack it down. Reduce heat to simmer and add several small pats of ghee (just a few grams each), or for vegan add small amounts of oil (no more than 1/2 tsp oil poured in 6-7 spots) in various places around the rice, so that it will spread out evenly while steaming. Cover with lid and allow 45 minutes to cook.
7.) In the meantime, place the saffron in the mortar & pestle and crush well. Transfer to small bowl and add 1.5 TBSP very warm water to bowl. Mix well with spoon. Set aside.
8.) When the rice is ready, remove from heat and remove lid. Gently scoop out about 1.5 to 2 cups of rice, being careful to leave the potatoes undisturbed. In medium bowl, combine the saffron water and rice and stir well, until all the rice is evenly colored yellow.
9.) In large serving bowl, carefully scoop out all the white rice but keep the potatoes separate. Atop the white rice, add the yellow rice, piling it upwards as much as possible. Surround the mound with the potato slices, crunchy side facing out. Garnish with parsley and/or some extra pan-toasted, coarsely ground cumin seeds if desired.
