Traditional Sunday Lunch; Brown Rice Jollof with Prawns

I’ve had a pack of brown rice for a while now. Brown rice isn’t very popular with us so I guess that’s why it stayed that long in my store. A few days ago, I was reading up on the health benefits of whole grains and found that it would do me a whole lot of good to choose brown rice over white rice where possible.


With that in mind, when I decided to make lunch today, I instinctively reached for the brown rice instead of white rice to make our traditional Sunday lunch (which is almost always rice in most Nigerian homes). I made a basic ‘jollof’ using the brown rice, some prawns and tomato sauce I had in the freezer. Wasn’t really in the mood for anything complicated, I was really tired and needed time to rest before the hustle and bustle of the new week starts on Monday morning.

Luckily, the brown rice brand I used required a straight forward cooking time with no parboiling and all…

Here goes;

Serves 6 - 8

450grams whole grain brown rice

1 medium Onion (diced)

45grams Butter or Margarine

90grams Tomato puree

300grams Tomato Sauce (or Stew)

4 stock cubes (Knorr/maggi etc.)

1 Garlic clove (crushed)

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

1¼ Litres (1250mls or 5 cups) Water

400grams medium prawns (peeled and deveined)

250grams Uncooked frozen mixed vegetables

Salt and White Pepper



I took the easy route by getting all my items prepped and weighed out and added all the ingredients except the prawns, frozen mixed veg, salt and white pepper into a cooking pot.

Stir with a wooden spoon and bring to a boil then lower your heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. About 10 minutes to the end of the cooking time, stir in frozen mixed vegetables and then the prawns go in about 3 minutes to the end of the cooking time.

Taste and adjust seasoning with the salt and white pepper.

Once cooked, let stand for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.