Mexican Rice

Here's a tasty and simple side dish I made to go with my enchiladas. I adapted it from allrecipes.com and have made it a few times for Mexican inspired dinners. The original recipe calls for chicken broth as the cooking liquid, but as I am not a fan of using chicken broth when chicken is not otherwise on the menu, I substituted vegetable stock. (Save your stems, peels, cores, cobs, and ribs for making it).

Mexican Rice
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup long grain white rice
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock, or water
1 small onion, diced
1 large poblano pepper, diced
1 large tomato, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the vegetable oil, then stir in the rice. Cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Pour in the broth or water, and bring to a boil. Stir in all the remaining ingredients. Return to a boil, then cover the pan, reduce heat, and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let the rice stand, covered, for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork before serving.