Cilantro Lime Rice with Edamame

Happy Monday to everyone!  My day went pretty fast now that I am working less hours a day than I used to.  After work I was eager to come home and make the recipe I am featuring today.  On the way home from work I stopped at the grocery store in hopes to find some decent cilantro.  I haven't had this herb in it feels like months because the bunches always look so sad at the grocery store, but this time I found a fresh bunch!

While living at my parent's house over the summer before Kevin and I got married in September, I was able to eat off of their garden all summer long.  (Speaking of the wedding, I have bunches of pictures from the wedding that I was going to post on here a few months ago, but went on a blogging hiatus before I was able to.  Oh, I also have a video of our hilarious, choreographed first dance.  Would anyone be interesting in seeing these?)  They planted kale, green onions, and cilantro among other things.  It was so nice to have these veggies growing in the backyard just soaking up the sun.  Needless to say, over the summer I had many green smoothies and we often ate veggie fajitas with a bunch of cilantro on top.

This recipe was inspired by my craving for fresh cilantro and the need to use up a bit of the brown rice I made this weekend.  In it is shelled, frozen and steamed edamame just because I loved all of the green colors of the dish together.  If you don't have edamame on hand, feel free to use any other type of bean or legume you want.  I'm betting this would be great with black or pinto beans.  Mmm!  Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

Mixture:

• 2 cups cooked brown rice (preferably leftover rice that has been in the fridge)
• 2 cups edamame (or other bean or legume)
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 3 green onion stalks, sliced
• salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:

• juice from 1 lime
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/4 cup cilantro
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 jalapeno, more or less to taste
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp onion powder

Directions:

1. Prepare ingredients for rice and edamame mixture and mix together in a large bowl.
2. In a food processor, process all of the dressing ingredients until smooth.  The cilantro will still have little flakes of it in the dressing, this is just fine.
3. Pour entire dressing mixture over the rice and veggies and stir till well coated.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve chilled by itself, in a tortilla, or in a lettuce wrap.

Amy's Notes:

• Like I said earlier, feel free to use any other type of bean or legume besides edamame if you would like.
• I used a frozen/steam bag of edamame.  I prepared it by steaming it in the bag in my microwave, then running the edamame under cold water to cool it for the rice dish.
• This recipe leaves quite an aftertaste, so if you would like to make it a little less potent, leave out the garlic and onion powder.
• I used a small slice off of a fresh jalapeno, please use as much or as little as you desire for some spiciness. 

Would anyone be interested in seeing some of my wedding pictures from September... and possibly our funny joke first dance video?