I’ve written before about how it’s often difficult to find a use for your seasonal vegetables when you only have a single handful. It’s not even close to a main dish, nor a filling side dish, and so you have to get a bit creative.

This time, with our whole one zucchini, I borrowed the creativity of Mad Coyote Joe. Yes, that’s how he lists his name on the cover of his cookbook, "The Sonoran Grill. He’s MAD, MAD, I tell you! (Insert evil villain cackle.)

Ole Coyote Joe’s recipe for Mexican Green Rice was the reason behind a few of these lovely peppers and made excellent use of our stray squash.

A certain audience right now is saying, “Groan, she roasted her own peppers?” Come on, are you really surprised? (Heads are shaking no.) Well, I’m going to tell you just how easy it is to roast a pepper

• Set your toaster oven to broil. (This is how I do it. If you have a gas stove, which I don’t, there’s another method, but I don’t know it.)
• Place your washed peppers on your toaster oven’s accompanying pan or upon a double-folded piece of foil.
• Go take care of other things that need to be done for dinner.
• Check on the pepper at 5 minutes. If the skin under the broiler is black, rotate 90 degree.
• Now check on the pepper every 3 minutes, rotating until all sides are black and blistered. Don’t be afraid of the black. About 12-15 minutes total.
• Carefully remove the peppers, immediately place them inside a ziploc bag, and seal it. Let them steam in the bag for at least 10 minutes or as long as you want.
• When you remove them from the bag, the skin should just slough off.

It’s really not hard if you have a timer. And the time. But yes, you can used canned green chiles to cut corners here as well. Just choose quality; it does make a difference.

While my chile peppers were roasting, I was prepping the rice and creating the sauce, which is a pureed mixture of broth, parsley, cilantro and garlic.

From there, it’s a one-pot shebang. The rice and chiles and onions cook for a while.

You add the squash and sauce, a little more broth, cover and cook until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

And sure enough, as the recipe title suggests, it’s green! It’s also smokey, spicy and fresh without being overpowering. I actually loved the subtle complexity of the flavor in every bite.

After having made this wonderful rice, I think it would make a great vegetarian main dish, serving about three or four people. You could even add some tofu: I think the creaminess would be great with the spicy rice.

But sorry, we’re omnivores around Casa Local Dish…

And so we ate our rice with some thick-cut grilled pork chops topped with roasted bell pepper. (Yes, I roasted it myself. Stop shaking your head at me.)

Aside from the roasting of chiles and having to wash the food processor, I think the rice came together easily and will be served as one of our go-to Mexican side dishes.

Along with traditional (tomato-based) Mexican rice. And rice and beans. And grilled corn on the cob. And fresh salsa with chips.

Sigh. Too much to cook, too little time.

Related Recipes

• Mexican Green Rice