Paleo Hashweh (Lebanese Dirty Rice)
My friend Lara is to blame for my current obsession with hashweh and fattoush salad. She made the real thing while we were on a ski trip in Aspen last winter and I've had this paleo version in my head (and scrawled in my notebook) ever since.
Lara's dish is based on her Lebanese aunt-in-law's recipe, and it's made with rice, beef and chicken (two proteins!). I thought I'd keep this one simple and just use beef along with ye olde cauliflower rice.
From what I've read, hashweh is technically stuffing—you can use it to stuff a roast chicken (explains the two proteins). It's a very simple and rustic sort of dish, but feels fancy AF because pine nuts are basically solid gold.
Special occasion-approved.
Paleo Hashweh (Lebanese Dirty Rice)
paleo, whole30, gluten-free recipe | serves 3-4
Ingredients
- 1/8 cup pine nuts
- ~8 cups cauliflower, riced (about 2-3 heads)
- olive oil
- 3 T butter
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line three baking sheets with foil.
- Using a dry, nonstick skillet, lightly toast the pine nuts (stirring occasionally) and set them aside.
- Spread the riced cauliflower (here's a tutorial in case you're not sure how to make cauliflower into rice) onto the baking sheets and toss with a bit of olive oil and salt.
- Roast for 20 minutes, giving everything a stir (and rotating racks if needed) about halfway through. If the cauliflower rice is done before you're ready, no worries. Just set it aside with the pine nuts.
- While the cauliflower rice is getting toasty, heat butter in a large pot on medium-high heat and then add the onions. Cook until soft.
- Add the ground beef to the pot and brown thoroughly until no longer pink.
- Stir in the allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
- Add the cauliflower to the pot and cook until everything is piping hot.
- Garnish with the toasted pine nuts and serve with Fattoush Salad for best results.
Tips
- I repeat for, like, the third time: you must make this with the Fattoush. It's a very good salad.
- This is a stellar make-ahead meal. Prep a whole batch of this on Sunday and pack it for work lunches. It's a thing that adults do, apparently.
- Take a shortcut and buy pre-riced cauliflower. They sell it at normal grocery stores now, even Costco. It's a marvelous thing.
- 8 cups of cauliflower rice felt like a ton (it was a double-package from my Costco haul), but it cooks down quite a bit when it's roasted. You could honestly add even more if you go up a smidge on the seasonings.
- Pine nuts are expensive. You could make this dish without them if you're trying to save some scrilla, and it would still taste good. Not the same (since they are a major player here), but still good.
