Rice Pilaf

This is a GREAT side dish, more flavor than plain white rice, and almost as easy to make.  Vermicelli is a pasta, available at grocery stores, that looks like thin spaghetti.  Vermicelli is available in either straight form or coils.  If you can’t find coils, use straight.  If you can’t find vermicelli at all, you can use spaghetti noodles, broken into inches approximately ½ inch long.

½ cube butter or margarine

1 coil vermicelli (a thin pasta that comes in a coil)

1 tsp. each salt and pepper

2 cups rice

2 ½ cups hot water

Melt butter in pot large enough to cook rice.  Break up one coil of vermicelli into melted butter and cook on a fairly high heat till pasta is browned.  Add salt and pepper and rice.  Cook for a few more moments to give rice a slightly browned look.  Add hot water, stir well.  Bring mixture to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low or simmer.  Cook for 20-25 minutes.  As with most rice dishes, do not lift lid or stir until rice is done.  However, this rice will not be as sticky as regular rice.  If you can't find coiled vermicelli, you can use angel hair pasta.  About an ounce, broken into small pieces (about an inch long.)  You can also make this in a rice maker.  Kick the water up another notch on the pan to account for the vermicelli.