I’m always on the lookout for vegetarian dinners and I liked the sound of the Creamy Coconut Rice with Chili-Lime Vegetables from Smitten Kitchen Keepers. I used to make this Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu with Coconut Rice to take to work for lunch, and the rice was always very good. And we like roasted veggies, so it seemed like a no-brainer.

For this I used an entire head of cauliflower and a small acorn squash. I subbed a jalapeno for the red chili, and decided to forgo the cilantro.

I used a 9×13 pan for the rice as apparently I don’t have a 3 quart casserole. It came together very quickly and I threw that in the oven while I chopped the veggies. I don’t think the timing would have been quite right, but I was hungry and wanted to get a head start on the rice, which needs to bake for 40-45 minutes.

Sadly for me, at 45 mins there was still a lot of liquid left in the pan with the rice, though it did seem like the rice was cooked. It turns out I’d set the oven temp too low, so I turned it up to finish off the veggies and poured the rice into a skillet. I just brought it to a gentle boil and stirred away until it got to the consistency I was looking for. At that point I decided the veggies were done and threw everything together.

Even setting aside my own issues making this, I’m not sure it’s a keeper for us. We tend to make dishes with very bold flavors, and this is pretty mild. In my opinion it needs a condiment, or more seasoning on the veggies. I kept thinking back to the spicy stir-fried tofu, which is coated in a spice mix that brings a lot of flavor to the dish. I would usually add some broccoli to it to round it out and to stretch the meal. I might just bring that back into the dinner rotation, we’ll see.