Baked Rice with Green Olives, Orange, Feta Cheese & Dill
Serves 8·Added 5 May 2026 by Tom Melhuish
MainVegetarian
Ingredients
| 300g | 10 1/2 oz | basmati rice |
| 3 | tablespoons | extra virgin olive oil(plus more to serve) |
| 2 | large onions(roughly chopped) | |
| 4 | garlic cloves(crushed) | |
| 1 | tablespoon | ground cumin |
| 1 | orange(finely grated zest and juice) | |
| 850ml | 1 1/2 pints | boiling chicken or vegetable stock |
| sea salt flakes | ||
| freshly ground black pepper | ||
| 100g | 3 1/2 oz | good-quality green olives(preferably pitted, roughly chopped or left whole) |
| 150g | 5 1/2 oz | feta cheese(crumbled) |
| small bunch | dill(leaves from a small bunch, roughly chopped, any coarse stalks removed) |
Method
1.Preheat the oven to 190°C fan (400°F), Gas Mark 6.
2.Wash the rice in a sieve under the cold tap, until the water runs clear, to remove the excess starch, then leave it in the sieve to drain.
3.In a 30cm (12in) ovenproof sauté pan or shallow casserole, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions over a medium-low heat until they're soft and pale gold. Add the garlic and cumin and cook for another 2 minutes, then add the rinsed and drained rice, orange juice and boiling stock. Season.
4.Bring to the boil on the hob, then transfer immediately to the oven. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.
5.When there are 10 minutes to go, break up the crust that has formed on the top and stir in the olives. By the end of cooking time, the rice should be tender and all the stock absorbed.
6.Scatter the orange zest, feta and dill over the top, drizzle with olive oil and serve. You will find that the rice has formed a delicious crust on the base of the pan.
Recipe Notes
AI · may be inaccurate
Tips
A blueprint for baked rice. Just stick to the same quantities of rice and liquid, the same size of pan and the same oven temperature and you can produce endless variations. Change the herbs, use spices, or add nuts and dried fruit.
Comments
Sign in to leave a comment.