Quarantine Kitchen: Lemon Pepper Rice with Carrots and Mixed Greens

One of the things I love about cooking rice is that although it is the epitome of bland on its own, it can absorb virtually any flavor. If you like to improvise in the kitchen, you’d be wise to view rice as a blank canvas on which to paint your next culinary masterpiece, or at least something your mom may want to tape to the fridge.

A rule of thumb I tend to follow is one I first heard uttered by Chef Michael Smith on his TV show, Chef at Home, which is simply that you can’t (or can rarely) go wrong if you start with flavors you already like. As far as rice is concerned, I would say that you can’t miss the mark if you’re adding only one flavor — combining two or more flavors increases the unpredictability of the final product.

But then, what fun is kitchen freestyling without the risk of failure?

And so what follows is my latest experiment, “Lemon Pepper Rice with Carrots and Mixed Greens” — unfortunately, my children wouldn’t even go near it, so I can’t tell if it was a success beyond my own taste buds. I ate (and enjoyed!) this dish on its own, but can imagine it working well as a side with grilled salmon.

Ingredients
2 cups long grain rice
1 lemon, quartered
4 cups cold water
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
1 tablespoon margarine
1/2 cup…