Michigan Dirty Rice

Just got back from my local Farmer's Market so I'm all about cooking my fresh finds up into something special.  I'm calling this recipe Michigan Dirty Rice because it's not nearly as spicy as the southern formula, but it is just as good, esp. if you use the fresh, just picked stuff.   As usual, I encourage you to make this recipe your own.  If you like the spicy, add some fresh jalapenos from the market too.  Throw some seeds in there and that dish'll light you right up!  Fresh cheese at your market?   Grab that too!  You can totally tailor this to your own taste and preferences.  This is a very basic recipe.


Dice up some fresh green pepper, onion,celery and fresh garlic cloves (I incl. 1 big honking clove for this recipe!)  from the farmer's market.

ahhhh, can you smell the freshness?  Yep, I'm cryin onion tears!

Saute in olive oil until tender....

Throw in some meat.  I used this sausage (below--which is not very spicy at all).  You could also use chicken, sausage or ground beef, or a combination.  This recipe is totally not picky!  Use what you have! Throw in some shrimp like the louisiana folks do!  Remember that dirty rice started when some poor southern folks went out to their gardens and pantry to get what they had avail to make a yummy dish! 

I bought this sausage during a couponing run

(I'm an extreme couponer too, but that's def another story). 

Cut the sausage up into bite size chunks and saute with the veggies and fresh garlic.  (or throw in whatever meat you have).  Don't drain it, honey, this is not a low-cal/healthy dish.   See how it's starting to brown?  The brown bits are the yummy stuff.

Once the sausage and veggies begin to brown and render (that means the sausage is getting all greasy and yum), I throw in my rice.  I used about 3 cups here.  Use whatever amount suits you.  This would also be fabulous (if not a touch healthier) which quinoa or brown rice. 

The white rice is more authentic to me, so I went for it. 

Doesn't this look yummy?

*** as an addendum to this recipe:  I had a bunch of this leftover, so I ended up incorporating it into a stuffed pepper recipe and it was SO GOOD.   I browned some  beef w/ green pepper, onion and garlic.  Then I added white rice, then I added, leftovers of this dish, some worchestershire sauce and some petite diced tomato.  I added some cheddar cheese and stuffed my green peppers with it (cooked those babies before stuffing for 5 min in boiling water and then sprinkled with course salt).  I poured campbells tomato soup over it (mixed w/ about 1/3 can of water) and baked the whole deal at 350 degrees covered with foil for about an hour.  this was just lovely good.