Roast the vegetables hard enough that the edges blacken, then fold them warm through rice you dressed first. That order matters. Rice drinks a dressing. Roast vegetables only wear it. Peanut Rayu goes through the dressing and again over the top, so you get it smooth in the rice and crunchy on the surface.
45 mins. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 400g Pumpkin, in 3cm pieces
- 2 Red capsicums, in thick strips
- 1 Red onion, in wedges
- 3 cups Cooked jasmine or brown rice, at room temperature
- 3 dessertspoons Plateit Japanese Peanut Rayu
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp Tamari
- 1 tsp Honey or maple syrup
- 40g Roasted peanuts, crushed
- 2 Spring onions, sliced
- Coriander and mint, a large handful of each
- Salt and pepper, plenty
Method
- Oven to 220°C. Pumpkin, capsicum and onion tossed in the olive oil and salted hard. Spread on a tray in one layer. Crowd the tray and they steam instead of roasting.
- Roast 30 to 35 mins, turning once, until the edges catch and go black in patches.
- Whisk the rice vinegar, tamari, honey and 1 dessertspoon of Plateit Japanese Peanut Rayu into a dressing.
- Rice into a big bowl. Dressing through it while the rice is at room temperature, not fridge cold, so it takes it up.
- Vegetables in warm, straight off the tray, with every scraping and burnt bit from the paper.
- Herbs, spring onion and peanuts folded through at the last second. The remaining 2 dessertspoons of Rayu spooned over the top.
Do this: Warm vegetables into room-temperature rice. Fridge-cold rice will not take the dressing and piping hot vegetables wilt the herbs to nothing.
Swap it: Cauliflower, carrot, sweet potato, whatever is in the drawer. The rule is one layer, hot oven, let the edges catch.
Make ahead: Roast the vegetables the day before. Dress the rice and fold everything together an hour before it goes on the table.