Can’t decide whether to have cilantro lime rice or poblano rice? You can enjoy both in this wonderful combination of warm poblanos, zesty lime, and fresh cilantro. 

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Poblano Peppers: Poblano peppers work overtime in this recipe-being a main component of our flavor and the entire reason our rice has a wonderful shade of green! They are mild, far less spicy than a jalapeno mild, and provide a flavor that is best described as warm and earthy. If you don’t have poblano peppers on hand, anaheim peppers work just as well. Decreasing the amount of poblano in this recipe means your rice may not appear green and the flavor of the poblano also would no longer be balanced with the cilantro and the lime-you’d almost have only cilantro lime rice. If you increase the poblano, the cilantro and lime might be covered up. So, we recommend sticking to the amount we have stated. 

Onion: What isn’t made better with onion? Onion adds a wonderful depth of flavor to this rice recipe. Although we use yellow onions, feel free to use whatever kind of onion you have on hand. You could also instead use 2 tablespoons of dried minced onion or 1 tablespoon of onion powder. We recommend adding the dried minced onion or onion powder at the same step that you add the garlic. 

Garlic: Also, what isn’t made better with garlic? We personally like to do a heavier amount than other recipes may have, but we believe just a clove or two is hardly detectable. To each their own, of course, and please do adjust this garlic amount to your preferences. 

Lime Juice: Although lime zest is where most of the lime flavor is, the juice is what gives us that classic tang! The juice of 1 lime is what we normally reach for, which is usually around 2 tablespoons of juice if you’re using bottled lime juice.  To keep the tang, the lime juice has to be added at the very end. That’s why it’s very important to not have overly moist rice, as we’re adding another 2 tablespoons of liquid right before serving. 

Lime Zest: Lime juice alone won’t get us that flavor we need! Lime zest is a must in this recipe if you want to taste the poblanos AND the lime. We zest 1 lime, getting most of the zest but not worrying about getting every single shred. You don’t need to be perfect here! Around 1.5-2 teaspoons of zest works great. 

Cilantro: Look, we know it may seem like a lot of cilantro! This may be more than we would add to a regular cilantro lime rice, but we have poblanos in this food equation. Poblanos are earthy and noticeable in the rice, so you can’t expect a little cilantro to flavor up this rice as much as it would plain rice. We recommend between ¼ and ½ cup of minced, fresh cilantro. This is usually between half a bunch to a whole bunch of fresh cilantro at the grocery store. ⅓ cup seems to be the winner for most, so taste to your own preference before going all the way up to a ½ cup! We like to do a ½ cup, but understand that can be too cilantro-y for some. 

Salt: You don’t want this rice to fall flat on flavor, do you? To make each bite craveable, we add salt! Adjust to your own tastes, as always. 

Black Pepper: An optional ingredient, but one we like to add! We like the taste of black pepper, garlic, onion, and poblano. It’s just a spice that goes so well with those ingredients. Although we normally reach for freshly cracked black pepper, ground black pepper works great here. Omit, decrease, or increase the black pepper to your tastes. 

Vegetable Oil: A little bit of oil goes a long way in this recipe. It helps us cook down the onion and poblano peppers, as well as bring out the flavor of the garlic. Any neutral oil works here, it doesn’t have to be vegetable oil. 

Water: Even though we blend the poblano pepper, onion, and garlic, that doesn’t make enough liquid to cook our rice. To make up for that, we add extra water. Still, we recommend using less liquid than your package of rice states. This rice can get on the wet side if you’re not careful, so drop anywhere between 2 and 6 tablespoons from the liquid requirement for your rice. It all depends on if you wash your rice and what kind of rice you’re using! If you’re washing your rice, you’re probably going to want to take roughly an extra tablespoon off of your original liquid amount. If you’re making brown rice, you’ll want to take more liquid away than white rice. Brown rice takes more water to cook, after all. 

Rice: We first thought these kinds of rice dishes were best with white rice. We only thought that because of tradition, of course. We had never really eaten brown rice meals! When we were out of white rice and swapped in brown rice for this recipe, we realized it’s just as great, no matter what color of rice you use. Still, we wouldn’t recommend sushi rice. Longer grains of rice work best here. So, prioritize using longer grains of rice, but when it comes to the question of “white rice or brown rice?”, just go for whatever you prefer. 

KEY INFORMATION: 

How Do I Keep Rice From Being Too Soggy? You avoid soggy rice by preventing too much liquid from being there in the first place! You can’t add too much and drain off excess liquid later. If your rice absorbs too much liquid while cooking, no amount of draining can save its texture. If you want fluffy rice, it’s better to be on the safe side when it comes to adding liquid. We recommend adding between 2 and 6 tablespoons less of liquid than your packaging calls for. If you have rice that needs more liquid to cook, such as brown rice, you’ll want to reduce the water closer to 6 tablespoons. If you wash your rice, you’ll also want to reduce the liquid you add more than someone that doesn’t. 

When Do You Add Lime for Cilantro Lime Rice? When Do You Add Cilantro for Cilantro Lime Rice? You add lime juice, lime zest, and cilantro for cilantro lime rice after your rice is done cooking and almost ready to serve. Zest and herbs have their strongest flavor when they are uncooked, so the key is to just stir them in at the end so they don’t have time to overcook and lose their flavor. Citrus juice, when cooked, can over-concentrate and become bitter. For that reason, lime juice is also best added once your rice is already cooked. 

What Goes With Cilantro Lime Poblano Rice? We’ll give some ideas for more protein, more veggies, more carbs, and finally what desserts go well afterwards! 

Let’s start with the protein. Spiced, roasted chickpeas are a great way to turn this cilantro lime poblano rice into a taco rice bowl! Kidney or black beans fit right in here, too! You can also spice some ground beef or chicken. If you’d like to take this meal into another direction, reach for some salmon. Blackened salmon or other kinds of fish (prepared blackened, ideally) also turn this into a great fish dinner. 

Up next, veggie-town! If you’re going the taco bowl route, we have a few recommendations. Garlicky guacamole (or any flavor) goes great with this rice! You can also roast up some spiced and sliced bell peppers and red onion. Calabacitas or pico de gallo are also two classic vegetable side dishes that would go great with this rice. Now, what if you were taking the fish dinner route? Grilled or sauteed fresh vegetables (asparagus, summer squash, or even broccoli/cauliflower) make a simple side dish to balance all the other flavors going on. Otherwise, try out a cucumber yogurt sauce and a cooling cucumber salad to balance any heat. 

Now, what if you’d like more carbs? That’s totally okay, too! Chips and salsa are a classic combo, that’s for sure. Adding tortilla chips should fix any extra carb cravings for the taco bowl route. For the fish dinner, we say we’re team “crusty bread!” A nice slice of bread with a crunchy crust makes any fish dinner feel complete. 

Now, what about dessert? We say the warmth, earthiness, and freshness of this rice calls for a little something else besides chocolate (don’t get us wrong, we’re obsessed with chocolate). Make your favorite strawberry cheesecake, a strawberry cake, or even a strawberry donut-whether you fill a donut with strawberry flavored cream, strawberry jam, or even toss mini donuts in strawberry sugar. If you want to go a bit more simple, though, why not a classic pie? Strawberry rhubarb pie, cherry pie, coconut cream pie, even key lime pie if you want lime during dinner and dessert! For that pie feel with less work, try out a strawberry rhubarb crisp or a cherry crisp!