Squid with Rice and Vegetables Recipe

Squid with Rice and Vegetables

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If you think about it, the only thing that sets an ordinary vegetable or rice side dish apart from a main course is meat, fish, poultry or seafood. I won’t argue: sometimes a side dish is so good you don’t even miss the meat. Squid with rice and vegetables is a perfect example. Squid rings with rice make a great side dish or a tasty meal on their own.

One of my favorite side dishes is rice with vegetables, a taste that goes back to childhood. Neither mashed potatoes, nor noodles, nor trendy french fries can compare. I can’t stand fries at all. On vacation I even choose places where I can order a specific side dish with my meat or fish. Sadly that doesn’t always work out, the language barrier, you know. They usually add at least a little fried, dried-out potato to the plate anyway.

Rice with seafood, or squid with rice and vegetables, is a very good side dish for fried fish. Squid rings with rice are a great side dish, or a tasty main course in their own right, almost like pilaf.

When you buy frozen whole squid, be ready for a rather tedious and fiddly job of preparing them for cooking.

You can buy frozen squid “rings” instead. These are medium-sized, already cleaned squid tubes cut crosswise into rings, which is very convenient for cooking. Squid rings fried in batter are delicious too, a wonderful snack to go with beer and other drinks.

Squid cooks very fast. What matters most is not to overcook or overfry it, or it turns rubbery. A few minutes of heat is enough. In complex dishes, add the squid rings shortly before the end of cooking.

13 ingredientsTo the recipe
More with squid

Ingredients

2 servings

  • Rice (long-grain, preferably parboiled) 1 cup
    (180 g)
  • Frozen squid rings 250 g
  • Canned corn 100 g
  • Green peas (canned or fresh frozen) 100 g
  • Carrot 1
  • Garlic 5-6 cloves
  • Celery root 50 g
  • Parsley root 50 g
  • Olive oil 3 tbsp
  • Dry white wine 3-4 tbsp (or 1 tbsp lemon juice)
  • Hot water 1 cup
    (200 ml)
  • Sweet paprika 1 tsp
    (2 g)
  • Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Preparation

  1. Start cooking squid with rice by preparing all the vegetables.

  2. Drain the corn. If the green peas are canned, drain them too; if they are fresh frozen, leave them as they are.

    Don’t thaw the squid rings either. They cook perfectly well from frozen.

    Squid rings, vegetables and corn.

  3. Separate the garlic into cloves without peeling them. Keep the skins on, since the garlic cooks whole.

  4. Peel the carrot and cut it into medium dice. I like the carrot a little underdone in the finished dish.

  5. Peel the celery and parsley roots and cut them into small dice. Don’t grate them, or they will turn to mush while cooking.

  6. Boil the rice in salted water until done beforehand. The squid and rice are combined at the very end of cooking. Long-grain, fluffy rice works best. Parboiled rice, usually sold as “steamed”, is ideal.

Stewing the vegetables and squid

  1. Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan until it gives off a characteristic aroma.

  2. Fry the chopped carrot, celery and parsley in the oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring fairly often.

    Frying the chopped vegetables in olive oil.

  3. Add the unpeeled garlic cloves, salt, pepper and sweet paprika to taste (a teaspoon is enough). Keep frying for another 2-3 minutes.

    Adding the unpeeled garlic and spices.

  4. Add the canned corn and green peas to the vegetables.

    Adding the green peas and canned corn.

  5. Pour in 3-4 tbsp of dry white wine and a glass of hot water. You can replace the wine with 1 tbsp of lemon juice. The dish should have a slight tang.

  6. Cover and simmer the vegetables over low heat for 15 minutes.

  7. Lay the frozen squid rings on top of the vegetables, cover and simmer for 5 more minutes, no longer, or the squid will turn rubbery. In that time the rings thaw and are completely done.

    If the vegetables are short of liquid, you can add a little. But by the end of cooking all the liquid must have evaporated, so the squid with rice ends up practically “dry”. If there is a lot of liquid left, cook the last few minutes without the lid.

    Adding the frozen squid rings.

Combining with the rice and serving

  1. Add the boiled rice to the vegetables and squid. Stir gently, trying not to break the rings.

    Mixing the vegetables and squid with the fluffy rice.

  2. Warm the squid with rice under the lid over very low heat for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Serve the squid with rice on plates.

    Squid with rice.

    If someone considers squid with rice a side dish rather than a main course, they have every right to. Add a piece of fried fish, for example grilled mackerel. A worthy pairing.

    And one more thing: I wouldn’t garnish squid with rice. It’s cheerful enough as it is.

    Rice with squid

Calories and macros

765 kcal

Serving ≈ 580 g

  • Protein32 g17% of kcal
  • Fat24 g30% of kcal
  • Carbs98 g53% of kcal

100 g133 kcalProtein 5.5 gFat 4.2 gCarbs 17 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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