Recipes from The Diet: Shiitakes and Brown Rice En Papillote

This is another recipe from the diet that I attempted at the beginning of the year. Needless to say, the diet did not stick. However, some of the recipes are too good not to mention. This shiitakes and brown rice papillote is one of them. The photograph in the magazine of this is what made me want to try this diet. It just looked fantastic.

This recipe is dead simple: dump some cooked brown rice in a pouch (I used foil, but the recipe calls for parchment paper) add in some shiitake mushrooms and toss in the over for 25 minutes. That is simple, right? Instead of buying the shiitake mushrooms whole, we bought a package that came pre-sliced, so there was absolutely no work involved in making this dish. I opened a bag of baby spinach and topped each papillote with s small handful and called it good.

Well, I guess my one complaint about this dish is that it is not very filling. Shortly after dinner, we had to go find something that would top us off, and ended up with some muffins from the fancy-pants grocery store. Hey, the meal was still delicious, it just need a little something. That said, I think this would make a killer side dish to a pork chop or chicken breast. In foil, you could even toss them on the grill! I think I will make that happen.

Shiitake Mushrooms and Brown Rice En Papillote via Whole Living (check out the picture of their papillote)

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 4 cups thinly sliced shiitake mushrooms
• 8 sprigs fresh thyme
• Coarse salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup fresh greens
• Lemon wedges

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper, 12 by 16 inches each. Divide brown rice among each parchment piece. Top with mushrooms and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
   
2. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet until packet is puffed and mushrooms are cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve with greens divided among plates and squeezed with lemon wedges.