Perfect Rosh Hashanah Jeweled rice side dish - The rice is infused with fragrant spices, and sweetened with dried apricots, figs, and cherries with a nice crunch from pomegranates and pistachios or pumpkin seeds.
Sephardic Jeweled Rosh Hashanah Rice
As most of you know, we grew up in Barcelona, Spain. Not exactly the easiest place for Jewish upbringing... and while we loved the beautiful city, it was often difficult during the Jewish holidays. The only family we had around were our aunt and uncle and cousins. We became this sort of huge family, and managed to collect plenty of fun and warm memories, especially from our Holiday dinners: our oldest cousin constantly teasing his sister, all the girls just laughing for no apparent reason, our father trying to keep a straight face and our bellies so full, we couldn't even move from the table.
The main meal was always amazing, but believe it or not, the symbolic foods we ate at the beginning were our favorites. Our mom would make zucchini and spinach frittatas, cold leek soup "shots" and we would also eat dates, apples with sugar (yes, sugar, not honey!), pomegranates with rose water, and head of fish or lamb (ok this part we didn't like at all, but everything else was delicious!!)
So, as you can see, Rosh Hashanah at our home was never a simple affair. For us, it was the time of year we looked forward to, spending time with family and enjoying the best food: lamb, kibbeh, meat sambusek, spiced roast with mushrooms, lots of salads, and sweet rice ( you can guess we weren't vegetarian back then!).
The Syrian Lebanese cooking we grew up eating didn't usually include sweet flavors in savory dishes. However, in Rosh Hashanah, our mom would make an exception and make the most delicious sweet carrot and raisin rice. It was always a big success and we brought the recipe with us when we moved to the US.
Inspired by one of our most popular Rosh Hashanah recipes (carrot and raisin rice), we created this fragrant sweet rice recipe that includes our mom’s favorite ingredients. This rice is flavored with warm spices like paprika, turmeric, and cumin and topped with dried apricots, figs, and cherries.
A Question for You...
What is your favorite Holiday (any Holiday!) dish? Please share... We'd love to hear from you.
Other Rosh Hashanah Side Dishes You'll Enjoy
- Black lentils with Roasted Glazed Carrots
- Butternut Squash Galette
- Green Beans with Pomegrantes and Tahini
- Roasted Butternut Squash with Tahini and Silan
Featured Comment from Rebecca
Made this for the holiday this year. My family loved it. I think next time, for their taste preferences, I'll use dates instead of figs, but I loved it as is.
Everyone ate it, don't get me wrong! It was delicious, colorful, and great for the holiday!
*****
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Sephardic Rosh Hashanah Jeweled Rice
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Perfect Rosh Hashanah Jeweled rice side dish - The rice is infused with fragrant spices, sweetened with dried apricots, figs and cherries with a nice crunch from pomegranates and pistachios
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil divided, plus 1 teaspoon
- 1 large onion, diced small
- 10 dried apricots, quartered
- 6 dried figs, quartered
- ¼ cup dried cherries or prunes
- ¼ cup pistachios or pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup long-grain rice (we used Jasmine rice, but you can use Basmati rice)
- 1 ⅓ cups of water or vegetable broth
- 1 ½ teaspoon fresh orange zest or lemon zest
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds
Instructions
- Combine salt, sweet paprika, turmeric, cumin, and black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside
- Heat 1 ½ tablespoons of the olive oil in a deep non-stick skillet for which you have a lid or a medium pot. Add rice and spices.
- Cook over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly and making sure the rice gets well coated with the oil and the spices
- Add 1 ⅓ cups of water or veggie broth. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat, and let it sit for 15 minutes, keeping the lid on.
- In the meantime, heat the remaining 1 ½ teaspoon tablespoons of olive oil in a non-stick skillet
- Add onions and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes or until the onions are soft and turned a golden color. Stir the onion frequently while cooking adding water 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent them from burning and to get them to soften faster.
- Transfer onions to a small bowl and using the same skillet, add dried fruit and pistachios or pumpkin seeds and cook over medium-low for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
- Once the rice is ready, fluff it with a fork, add cooked onions, dried fruit, pistachios, orange zest, and toss well.
- Right before serving sprinkle pomegranate seeds on rice.
Notes
- Use your favorite dried fruit such as dates or dried blueberries.
- Use almonds, pine nuts, or walnuts.
- Keep it nut-free by using pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds or sunflower seeds.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: mediterranean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ½ cup
- Calories: 229
- Sugar: 14 g
- Sodium: 354 mg
- Fat: 7.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 38.8 g
- Fiber: 3.7 g
- Protein: 3.7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Faith (An Edible Mosaic)
I think this is the prettiest rice dish I've ever seen. Warm spices and dried fruit really make it something special.
Vicky & Ruth
Thank you so much. As you can imagine this rice was gone in no time 🙂
Rebecca Froebe
Made this for the holiday this year. My family lived it. I think next time, for their taste preferences, I'll use dates instead of figs, but I loved it as is.
Everyone ate it, don't get me wrong! It was delicious, colorful, and great for the holiday!
Vicky & Ruth
Thank you so much! We are so happy you enjoye it!
Lori
Made this with dates and dried blueberries instead of figs otherwise as recipe dictated and had it erev Yom Kippur. EVERYONE even the pickiest eaters LOVED it!
Thank you for a wonderful flavorful vegan rice dish.
Erina
Can I make with quinoa instead? What do you think?
Vicky and Ruth
Yes, absolutely!
Jason Turner
Thank you so much!
Judy
This looks amazing. What can you suggest with this for a vegan Rosh Hashanah dinner?
Vicky and Ruth
I would recommend:
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/black-eyed-peas-recipe/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/eggplant-meatballs-with-pomegranate-molasses/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/black-lentils-with-roasted-carrots/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/roasted-beet-hummus/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/beet-salad/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/roasted-sweet-potatoes/
https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/swiss-chard-and-cannellini-beans/
Here's a whole roundup of rosh hashanah of 31 recipes. https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/8-awesome-rosh-hashanah-recipes/
Bonnie Marcus
Hi...Can I make this one day ahead?
Vicky and Ruth
Yes.
Bonnie Marcus
Can I make this 1 day ahead?
Vicky and Ruth
Yes, 1-2 days ahead works.
Lyn Florence
What a wonderful recipe! Everyone loved it! I used prunes, figs, 5 apricots and 5 dates, pistachios and followed the rest of the ingredients exactly. I cooked the day before and heated in microwave for 41/2 minutes. There was very little left. Thank you so much Vicky and Ruth!
Vicky and Ruth
You are so welcome Lyn, thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a review!