Lebanese loaded rice? Well, thanks to Suzy at The Mediterranean Dish, I am made this Middle Eastern cousin to Dirty Rice directly from her recipe. I wanted to experience the flavors for myself before I engaged in paring the recipe down for one person. This dish is downright delicious. Suzy is so right when she mentions it is typically a side dish but can be used as a main dish just as easy. The rich and warm spices used are typical of Middle Eastern cuisine and wonderfully augment the ground beef/lamb mixture I used. The hearty ratio of meat to rice means it is filling and coupled with toasted almonds, pine nuts, and dried fruit, you can just imagine the spectrum of flavors going on. The only tweak (if you could call it that) was to use a mixture of golden and dark raisins since I ran short of dark raisins… doh! I don’t think there was any impact on the final result, because it was immensely enjoyable. So if you cannot wait for me to do my thing and you want to make this dish, head to Suzy’s blog and get to it… you will not be disappointed!

Enjoy!