Name: Chickpea Vegetable Pilaf Rice
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 cloves of garlic, crushed; half small red onion, finely chopped; 1 cup (180g) of long grain rice; 2.25 cups (540ml) of chicken or vegetable stock; zest and juice of a lemon; 1/2 red pepper, finely chopped; 1 small zucchini, finely chopped; 1 cup (240ml) of canned chickpeas, drained; salt and black pepper to season; cooking oil spray (I used avocado); chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)

Jump to Recipe

Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf - A perfect simple side dish for when you fancy something a bit more flavourful than plain steamed rice.

Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf on white plate with blue rim

Simple Rice Pilaf

Have I mentioned how much I love rice? It's probably one of my go-to sides because it's super easy to cook and really filling too when combined with other foods. A great side for saucy dishes like curries and chilli etc.

Rice Pilaf just has a lot more flavour to regular rice, because it's usually cooked in a stock or broth and with some vegetables. It's actually so yummy I could eat a bowl of this own it's own.

Chickpea Rice Pilaf

Adding some chickpeas to the rice adds some fibre and protein, and as I always have a can of chickpeas on hand in my pantry cupboard, it's was a great item to add into this pilaf.

I love the texture they add also. Probably one of my favourite legumes

SUBSTITUTE FOR CHICKPEAS

But what if you don't like chickpeas or don't have any on hand? No worries, you can either leave those out and just stick with the vegetables.

Or some great substitutes for chickpeas are:

Green or Brown Lentils (cooked/canned) – I don’t recommend red lentils as they will go mushy whereas green and brown hold their shape.

Any beans of choice such as:

Great Northern Beans or Cannelini
Butter Beans/Lima Beans
Kidney
Pinto Beans

so many different varieties to choose from.

Vegetables for Rice Pilaf

For this Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf, the vegetables I added were:

garlic
onion
red pepper
zucchini (courgette)

some other great suggestions are:

different coloured peppers
carrot
little cubes of butternut squash
different herbs
finely diced tomato
mushrooms

or use whatever you fancy.

Main Dishes to serve with Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf

One of my favourite recipes to serve with this Rice Pilaf is this delicious Oven Baked Salmon with Tomatoes, it just pairs amazingly well with the sauce and fish.

But it is a great side for a variety of dishes, especially those containing Fish, Shrimp (Prawns) or Chicken.

More Rice Side Dishes

Love rice side dishes like this? Check out some of my other recipes:

or head on over to my Full Recipe Index with over 900 delicious Slimming Eats and Weight Watchers friendly recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients etc

close up of Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf on white plate with blue rim

LET’S CONNECT!

Find me ON FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | TWITTER | and YOUTUBE, come and follow me TO MAKE SURE YOU KEEP UP TO DATE ON ALL NEW RECIPES.

You can also subscribe to Slimming Eats so that you never miss any new updates.

IF YOU TRY THIS RECIPE, LET US KNOW! LEAVE A COMMENT, RATE IT AND TAG US IN YOUR PHOTOS @SLIMMINGEATS ON INSTAGRAM

See the handy Pinterest image below if you wish to pin this for later 🙂

Recipe Card

Chickpea Vegetable Pilaf Rice

Yield: SERVES 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Chickpea Vegetable Rice Pilaf - A perfect simple side dish for when you fancy something a bit more flavourful than plain steamed rice.

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic, crushed
half small red onion, finely chopped
1 cup (180g) of long grain rice
2.25 cups (540ml) of chicken or vegetable stock
zest and juice of a lemon
½ red pepper, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, finely chopped
1 cup (240ml) of canned chickpeas, drained
salt and black pepper to season
cooking oil spray (I used avocado)
chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)

Instructions

Spray a deep frying pan with spray oil, add the garlic and onion and fry for a couple of minutes till lightly golden
Add the rice, red pepper, zucchini and chickpeas and lemon zest, lemon juice and spray with a little more spray oil and fry for about 1 more minute.
Add the stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer till stock is absorbed.
When the liquid is all absorbed, turn off heat but leave covered for 10-12 minutes, the steam trapped underneath will continue to cook the rice.
Once the 10-12 minutes is up, you can stir and season with salt and black pepper, and stir through some chopped cilantro (coriander).
Serve with your choice of main dish and enjoy!!

Notes

Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:

Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.

If you wish to share this recipe, then please do so by using the share buttons provided at top of this post.

DO NOT COPY AND/OR PASTE FULL RECIPES OR SCREENSHOTS OF ANY CONTENT FROM SLIMMING EATS TO ANY SOCIAL MEDIA OR WEBSITE, IT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

ALL IMAGES AND CONTENT ON SLIMMING EATS ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED

Nutritional information etc are an estimate and are to be used for informational purposes only. Ingredients can vary in values from brand to brand and therefore it would be impossible to give accurate information. It is always advised that you calculate values yourself by the ingredients you use and the tools provided to you as a member of the programme you are following.

It is the responsibility of the Reader to assure the products or ingredients they use in any recipes from Slimming Eats are allergen-free (gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free and/or dairy-free, for example). Slimming Eats assumes no liability for inaccuracies or misstatement about products, opinions or comments on this site.