homemade frozen veg rice a la birds eye?

saverstacey

My children love the birds eye frozen 'original veg rice' which is a mix of "rice, peas, sweetcorn, onion and seasoning'. M&S also do one that is very similar. Both are expensive and I would like to try a hm version that can be frozen and used as needed.

Any suggestions please?

Thanks

saverstacey

bumpity bump......

Penelope_Penguin

Can you not just cook some rice and add the vegetables What is it that makes the Birds Eye product so special

Penny. x

horseinhatman

The Birdseye product , amazingly, is not suitable for vegans (but is for vegetarians) , so I guess the captain is slipping in some sort of dairy product along the line in his nasties somewhere

scottishgal_2

I've never tried the Bird's eye rice, but I do make something similar for lunches at home. I fry a chopped onion, then add Veetee 'dine in' tray of Basmati rice (you can fry it or microwave for 2 mins), I cook some frozen peas and then add this into the rice, and season with season all. I love it! It takes around 5 mins to cook all this and tastes delish! Mmmmm I fancy some just now!

I'm not sure how much the Bird's Eye costs, but I buy 6 trays of Veetee rice from costco for £4 something, and the peas, onion cost next to nothing so it's very cheap to make!

scottishgal_2

Alternatively Tesco does one for £1.25, reduced to £1 at the mo! 4 x packets of 200g.

cady

i make something similer too just boil white rice i fry onions ad peas sweetcorn and garlic and season and its lovely!!

saverstacey

I wonder what the 'seasoning' is in the birds eye- it def adds to it and also colours it a bit. any ideas?

So cooked rice can just be frozen?

scottishgal_2

I use 'Schwartz season all', it adds colour to the food as well as a flavouring. It's a salt alternative, but with extra flavourings. I've replaced salt with it in cooking now!

Samphire

Takes me back to my student days when I used to live on rice, peas and "season all" alternated with marmite sandwiches!!:rolleyes:
I would also like to know how to do a HM version of this - ie something that can be frozen and reheated rather than cooked from scratch to save time when I get home late and am exhausted after wrestling the kids into bed. :eek: I've never frozen rice as I've been worried about food poisoning - there are some really nasty bugs that can lurk in rice. I know that if you're doing a rice salad you need to cool it quickly and fridge it but have never seen instructions for safely cooking frozen rice. Anyone who does this, do you nuke from frozen or defrost first? How long / what power, and do you put seasoning / veggies with it?

scottishgal_2

Samphire wrote: »

TI've never frozen rice as I've been worried about food poisoning - there are some really nasty bugs that can lurk in rice. I know that if you're doing a rice salad you need to cool it quickly and fridge it but have never seen instructions for safely cooking frozen rice. Anyone who does this, do you nuke from frozen or defrost first? How long / what power, and do you put seasoning / veggies with it?

You're right, rice is really dodgey!! I wouldn't risk it either. But if you're after time saving you can buy microwaveable rice which only takes a couple of mins. The Basmati rice is very flavoursome so hardly need seasoned.