Paleo Hashweh (Lebanese Dirty Rice)

My friend Lara is to blame for my current obsession with hashweh and fattoush salad. She made the real thing while we were on a ski trip in Aspen last winter and I've had this paleo version in my head (and scrawled in my notebook) ever since.

Lara's dish is based on her Lebanese aunt-in-law's recipe, and it's made with rice, beef and chicken (two proteins!). I thought I'd keep this one simple and just use beef along with ye olde cauliflower rice.

From what I've read, hashweh is technically stuffing—you can use it to stuff a roast chicken (explains the two proteins). It's a very simple and rustic sort of dish, but feels fancy AF because pine nuts are basically solid gold.

Special occasion-approved.

Paleo Hashweh (Lebanese Dirty Rice)

paleo, whole30, gluten-free recipe | serves 3-4

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup pine nuts
• ~8 cups cauliflower, riced (about 2-3 heads)
• olive oil
• 3 T butter
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line three baking sheets with foil.
2. Using a dry, nonstick skillet, lightly toast the pine nuts (stirring occasionally) and set them aside.
3. Spread the riced cauliflower (here's a tutorial in case you're not sure how to make cauliflower into rice) onto the baking sheets and toss with a bit of olive oil and salt.
4. Roast for 20 minutes, giving everything a stir (and rotating racks if needed) about halfway through. If the cauliflower rice is done before you're ready, no worries. Just set it aside with the pine nuts.
5. While the cauliflower rice is getting toasty, heat butter in a large pot on medium-high heat and then add the onions. Cook until soft.
6. Add the ground beef to the pot and brown thoroughly until no longer pink.
7. Stir in the allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and pepper. 
8. Add the cauliflower to the pot and cook until everything is piping hot. 
9. Garnish with the toasted pine nuts and serve with Fattoush Salad for best results.

Tips

• I repeat for, like, the third time: you must make this with the Fattoush. It's a very good salad.
• This is a stellar make-ahead meal. Prep a whole batch of this on Sunday and pack it for work lunches. It's a thing that adults do, apparently.
• Take a shortcut and buy pre-riced cauliflower. They sell it at normal grocery stores now, even Costco. It's a marvelous thing.
• 8 cups of cauliflower rice felt like a ton (it was a double-package from my Costco haul), but it cooks down quite a bit when it's roasted. You could honestly add even more if you go up a smidge on the seasonings.
• Pine nuts are expensive. You could make this dish without them if you're trying to save some scrilla, and it would still taste good. Not the same (since they are a major player here), but still good.

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