A creative way to get kids to eat their spinach, these tasty rice volcanoes make dinnertime fun. Kids can help form the volcanoes in the muffin pan once the rice mixture and filling are made.
Rice Volcanoes
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) butter (approx.)
- 2 tbsp (30 mL) dry bread crumbs (approx.)
- 4 cups (1 L) cooked, cooled U.S. medium grain rice
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup (250 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 cups (500 mL) lightly packed baby spinach leaves
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) each cubed cooked ham and Mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
- 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) warm prepared pasta or pizza sauce
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Lightly coat each cup of a 12-cup muffin pan with butter. Dust the cups lightly with the bread crumbs.
- Stir rice with eggs and Parmesan cheese. Spoon 1/4 cup (50 mL) of rice mixture into each prepared muffin cup. Gently press rice mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the cups to make a shell.
- Combine the spinach, ham, mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped and combined but not puréed). Spoon about 1 tbsp (15 mL) of spinach mixture into each muffin cup.
- Top each cup with about 2 tbsp (30 mL) of the remaining rice mixture; gently smooth top to enclose the filling.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge and carefully lift or turn out onto serving plates. Spoon a little warmed pizza sauce over each serving to resemble a volcano.
Fill the volcanoes with 2 cups (500 mL) of your favourite pizza flavour combinations such as chopped pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers.
Make this dish more sophisticated by filling the volcanoes with gourmet ingredients such as caramelized onions, blanched chopped asparagus, chopped prosciutto or sautéed wild mushrooms. Trade the pizza sauce for gourmet pasta sauce.
