Weeknight Cooking

Brown Rice Bowl With Avocado & Spicy Cucumbers

May  3, 2021
3.7
6 Ratings
Photo by Ty Mecham. Prop Stylist: Veronica Olson. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
  • Prep time 15 minutes
  • Cook time 15 minutes
  • Serves 2
Test Kitchen Notes

This feel-good brown rice bowl is here for all your work-from-home lunches, weeknight dinners, and even breakfast, too—thanks to that jammy egg. Packed with fresh, super-green ingredients (like California Avocados, baby bok choy, cucumber, cilantro) and punchy flavors (lime, fish sauce, Fresno chile peppers), this is one rice bowl you’ll never get bored with. You can mix up the toppings however you like, but don’t skip the creamy pureed dressing: The California Avocados bring richness and texture, while the garlic, fish sauce, and lime (zest and juice) bring that zing.

This recipe is shared in partnership with California Avocados. —The Editors

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 pound baby bok choy (or any hearty green vegetable)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 California Avocados, divided
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce, divided
  • 2 limes, zested and juiced, divided
  • 1 Fresno chile pepper, divided
  • 1 pinch kosher salt, plus more to taste
  • 5 Persian cucumbers (or 1 English cucumber)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
  • 1 cup short-grain brown rice, cooked in a rice cooker or on the stovetop according to package instructions
Directions
  1. Bring a large sauce pot filled with water to a boil over high heat. Once the water comes to a boil, blanch the bunch of cilantro for 10 seconds, or until it's just wilted and turns a more saturated green. Remove and chill in an ice bath for 1 minute. Dry with paper towels or a salad spinner, and set aside.
  2. Bring the water back to a boil and blanch your bok choy the same way, about 10 seconds—just until it slightly wilts and turns a more saturated green. Shock in the ice bath and dry; set aside.
  3. One more time! Bring the water back to a boil, lower your eggs in the water, and cook for 7 minutes. Transfer the eggs to an ice bath and allow to cool until the eggs are easy to handle, about 2 minutes. Crack the egg on all sides, and peel; set aside.
  4. In a blender, combine the blanched cilantro, 1 avocado, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, the zest and juice of 1 lime, half the Fresno chile pepper, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, a pinch of kosher salt, and 1/2 cup of water. Puree until smooth and set aside.
  5. Place cucumbers in a large zip-top bag and give it 10 whacks with a heavy utensil, like a rolling pin. (You can place a kitchen towel on top of the bag for this step to protect your countertop.) Remove the cucumbers and cut into smaller pieces if they’re not smashed enough.
  6. Toss the cucumbers with the remaining avocado (diced into 1-inch chunks), 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce, the zest and juice of 1 lime, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, the remaining half of the Fresno chile pepper (sliced thinly), and salt to taste.
  7. Build your bowl: Start with a base of brown rice and top with your jammy egg, blanched greens, and dressed cucumbers and avocado. Dollop the avocado puree in the center of the bowl. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves. Condiments like hot sauce or chili crisp are highly encouraged.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • tricia
    tricia
  • Mathieu Garcia
    Mathieu Garcia

2 Reviews

tricia June 5, 2022
After having this recipe saved to my bookmarks for over a year, I finally made it last night. I'm an experienced cook and this recipe has all of the ingredients I love - brown rice, avos, cucumbers, eggs, so on - so I imagined it would be labor-intensive but delicious. Yes to the former, absolutely no the latter. With each individual step it took nearly 2 hours, start to finish, and a ton of cleanup (try smashing cukes, for example, and see what you end up with). And the end result was a gloppy-looking mess, with undercooked eggs, a sauce that had little flavor, and the cuke salad astringent-tasting. I ended up scraping everything into the trash other than the brown rice. Disappointment.
 
Mathieu G. July 25, 2021
This looks absolutely delicious! I'm out of brown rice but I have some whole wheat couscous. I guess I could use it instead? Thanks!