Lemon Pepper Rice is a fresh, easy, less than 30-minute, Greek side dish tossed with garbanzo beans (chickpeas), parsley, bright lemon zest and pairs perfectly with our Mediterranean chicken kabobs.
This lemon rice side dish is going to be your families’ new go to recipe. The best part is that it can be made all in one pot! You’re going to love the texture of the jasmine rice, the savory aromatics and the broth. When the bright lemon and fresh parsley notes hit your tongue, you’ll be hooked. How much do you want to bet you’re going to want seconds?
8 Reasons to Love Lemon Pepper Rice
- Budget friendly
- Easy Pantry meal
- One of our favorites from our 17 Pantry Recipes for Emergency Preparedness
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
- Vegan option
- One-pan recipe
- Less than 30-minute side dish or vegan main
Ingredients
Jasmine rice – is our favorite; but you can exchange with short grain rice or even brown rice. If you choose to use brown rice, you will need to increase the water and cook time for the recipe.
Fun fact: Did you know that the standard Japanese cup is less than an imperial [US] cup? 1 cup Japanese (cup) = 0.85 cup US (cup). For this recipe you can use either a Japanese cup or an American measurement cup for this recipe. The reason being, is long as you use the same measurement tool for both the rice and the water, the ratio for rice and water will remain the same and the added aromatics do not need to be changed.
Aromatics – of course GARLIC and sauteed onions really make this simple rice dish go to the next level.
Fresh Ground Black Pepper, and lots of it, or to your taste. So simple, but yet quite tasty.
Lemon zest makes this one pan side dish super fresh and delicious. If you prefer, you can add lime zest or even Meyer lemon zest to the lemon garlic rice instead. We always support using what one has on hand.
Fresh Parsley or dried parsley or even mixed Italian dried herbs like basil, oregano and thyme.
Chicken Broth but you can also use vegetable broth or water to keep this recipe vegan.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) coats each grain of rice to keep them separated and gives the rice pilaf a delicious toasted nutty flavor. You can also use butter or vegan butter if desired.
Garbanzo beans also known as chickpeas are a delicious addition and add an extra boost of protein. Have you ever tried our Roasted Crunchy Garbanzo Beans for a healthy snack?
How to Make Stovetop Rice Pilaf?
There are 4 really important rules to make the BEST Lemon Pepper Rice pilaf.
- Rinse the rice under cold water until it's clear. The white powder residue on the rice is starch. This starch can make the rice stick together. A rice colander is great for any kitchen. Place the rice in the colander in the kitchen sink and use your fingers to mix the rice until the water runs clear. Alternatively, you can rinse your rice in any pot or large bowl. Drain the water out carefully with the lid to capture any escaped rice. Be careful! Raw rice and plumbing do not go well together. In addition, don’t put rice in the garbage disposal as this can harm it.
- Coat the rice well in the olive oil before adding the broth. This procedure keeps the rice separated and gives the lemon pepper rice a delicious toasted nutty flavor. We used the same technique on our Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Saffron.
- Make sure you have a tight-fitting lid without any vent holes to steam the rice. Now, don’t you be peeking whilst the rice is steaming. If you open the lid, you let all the steam out.
- Jasmine long grain rice to broth/water ratio is 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of broth/water. After you add the broth to the rice, put on the lid, bring to a very light boil and then simmer gently for 12 minutes. Do not peek. Then, remove from heat and let it rest for 10 minutes with the lid on before fluffing with a fork or rice paddle.
What to serve with Mediterranean Greek Rice?
Our deconstructed Greek vegan chickpea lemon rice is absolutely fantastic alongside grilled chicken, Herb Marinated Rack of Lamb or Mediterranean Red Snapper Packets. Give our lemon pepper rice a try in our Parsley Lemon Shrimp Wraps or even as a vegan main dish with an Easy Tabbouleh Lebanese Salad. Be sure to try our Greek Feta Yogurt Snack Bites as a delicious starter.
Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Did you know that you can freeze lemons? If you find yourself a big lemon sale or unable to go through a huge bag before they start to degrade, just freeze your lemons whole in a sealable plastic bag. Really!
Lemons will keep for about a month in the freezer. If you need lemon zest, zest the lemons them while they are frozen. If you need the juice, just put the frozen lemons in a bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes to soften or microwave for a few seconds.
Frozen lemons are miles better than the liquid that comes in a plastic lemon squeeze container. By the way, the same goes for limes, which one can freeze as well. Lemon zest really brightens up our Lemon Pepper Rice side dish.
Jasmine long grain rice to broth/water ratio is 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of broth/water.
A Japanese cup is less than an US cup measurement
1 cup Japanese (cup) = 0.85 cups US (cup)
Delicious Rice Recipes
Hong Kong Fried Rice [Restuarant Style + VIDEO]
Curried Harvest Black Forbidden Rice
Kimchi Pantry Fried Brown Rice
Coconut Rice Pudding with Cardamom Spiced Honey Pears
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Lemon Pepper Rice
Equipment
- rice colander
- medium pot with tight fitting lid
- rice paddle or wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 2 cups jasmine rice long grain white rice
- 3 cups broth chicken or vegetable (gluten-free if needed)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup onion (approximately ½ small onion) peeled and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic
peeled and minced (or 1 teaspoon dried ground garlic) - salt and pepper
to taste. We like to use LOTS of fresh ground pepper to give this recipe a little kick. - 1.5 tablespoons lemon zest
- 15 oz garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
- 2 tablespoons parsley garnish, finely chopped - optional
Instructions
- Place jasmine long grained white rice in a rice colander or a pan and rinse with cold water until the water runs clear. Drain well and set aside.
- Place a medium pot on the stove burner and set to medium low heat. Add in olive oil and onions and garlic and sauté just until aromatic.
- Add the rice to the pot and mix well so that each grain of rice is covered in the oil.
- Next, add either chicken or vegetable broth to the pot and stir. Once you see a couple of small bubbles, cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and turn burner down to simmer. Steam rice at a simmer for 12 minutes. Do not take the lid off the pot. No peeking as you will let all the steam out. The steam is cooking the rice.At this point the rice should be cooked and no broth should be remaining in the pot. (If you still have broth left in the pot, maybe your heat was not high enough and you need to cook a little bit longer. If your rice is dry but still not cooked, your heat may have been too high. No worries just add a couple of tablespoon of water and cook for a couple of minutes longer.)Remove the pot from the burner and keep the lid on and leave it rest for 10 minutes.
- Add garbanzo beans (chickpeas), lemon zest, salt and pepper to taste and parsley and stir well.
- Serve Lemon Pepper Rice while hot. Garnish with parsley and fresh lemon slices. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Rinse the rice under cold water until it's clear. The white powder residue on the rice is starch. This starch can make the rice stick together. A rice colander is great for any kitchen. Place the rice in the colander in the kitchen sink and use your fingers to mix the rice until the water runs clear. Alternatively, you can rinse your rice in any pot or large bowl. Drain the water out carefully with the lid to capture any escaped rice. Be careful! Raw rice and plumbing do not go well together. In addition, don’t put rice in the garbage disposal as this can harm it.
- Coat the rice well in the olive oil before adding the broth. This procedure keeps the rice separated and gives the lemon pepper rice a delicious toasted nutty flavor. We used the same technique on our Creamy Parmesan Risotto with Saffron.
- Make sure you have a tight-fitting lid without any vent holes to steam the rice. Now, don’t you be peeking whilst the rice is steaming. If you open the lid, you let all the steam out.
- Jasmine long grain rice to broth/water ratio is 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of broth/water. After you add the broth to the rice, put on the lid, bring to a very light boil and then simmer gently for 12 minutes. Do not peek. Then, remove from heat and let it rest for 10 minutes with the lid on before fluffing with a fork or rice paddle.
Rachel Smith says
What is vegetable powder and where do i get it?
Healthy World Cuisine says
Hello Rachel, vegetable powder is like instant powdered bouillon and can be found near the soup section of your store. If you cannot find the vegetable powder, you can use a vegetable bouillon cubes and just crush it and sprinkle it in the dish for added flavor. Otherwise just season with salt and pepper and enjoy. Take Care
Promenade Claire says
a great recipe idea. I often make an indian style lemon rice, but your recipe would shakes things uup a bit around here !
shenANNAgans says
I've got a bag of chickpeas in the pantry just begging to be used as you suggest. Thanks love, I dont know how many times I have picked them up and put them back down shaking my head, wondering what Id do with them. 🙂
Kelly - A Side of Sweet says
I'm always looking for ways to eat more garbanzo beans! I love how healthy they are, that they add protein, and you can basically put them in anything! Thanks for sharing this pretty recipe!
allthatsjas says
Yummy! This reminds me of a rice and shrimp lemon salad that I haven't made in ages. Thanks for reminding me. On the other note, I wish you lived closer so that I can test your food (lol) and get photography lessons from you. 😀
mjskit says
Quick and easy...you're talking my language! Totally with you on the plastic lemon juice container. Years and years ago I bought one and never again. There's nothing like a good fresh lemon. Love this easy breezy lemon rice recipe and the addition of chickpea makes it a full meal. Have fun with the boys and the end of year project and tests!
dianeskitchentable says
I'm finally taking a break from Photoshop after having a complete meltdown yesterday when I found out that Apple updated their photo application making all of the files I'd been working on unusable! Never saw that one coming and they tell me that 3rd party vendors "should have their products compatible within 3 months"! Are you kidding me? This is not good but at least I'm making myself happy looking at your food.
I was just mentioning on another blog that I haven't made rice in ages and it's time to get back to it. This looks like a really interesting one and I love the lemons in there (yup, we went from having the heat on in the house to a heat wave outside - go figure). I had no idea that you could freeze lemons. Usually they're on sale 3 at a time so I'm making use of that little tip. Thank you!
nagimaehashi says
Your boys must be the luckiest boys in town. I'd happily study if it meant submitting my food orders to you!!
We also seem to be in sync! I literally just made a chickpea rice for a Middle Easter pulled lamb!!! I wish there was a way to upload photos 🙂 Pinning away! N x
Culinary Flavors says
What a beautiful, vegan dish Bobbi! I am craving rice now! Shared and pinned of course!
Barbara Bamber | justasmidgen says
It's such a treat visiting you here! It's been far too long. Your food photography is gorgeous! I think you should have a cookbook one day, I'd be there to buy a copy. Love this recipe, the flavors of lemons and chickpeas would be a new favorite for us. I will try this one BAM, short and easy is how we roll these days:) xx
Mary Frances says
Yum! This looks so delicious and fresh! Love all the easy rice dish variations too!
Raymund says
Wow thanks for all these rice dishes,something that I really need as we are big rice eaters here
shashi at runninsrilankan says
A steady supply of delicious food works even with daughters, Bobbie! 🙂 At least, it works with mine!
I love lemons and this rice looks so fabulous! I did not know that lemons could be frozen though - so thanks so much for that info!
Sandra Shaffer says
Ohhh, tasty brown rice! This looks so good! Perfect side dish or full meal since it has satisfying chickpeas in your recipe! Thanks for the tips on freezing lemons. I have a bunch right now!
Marcela (tortadellafiglia) says
What a lovely protein packed vegetarian meal! I love how it looks like! Awesome photos! I'm gonna do it tomorrow 😀