Jollof Rice

Ingredients

• 200g tomatoes roughly chopped – tinned or fresh both work fine
• 1 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1/2 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1cm/10g piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 red chilli, stemmed, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp sunflower or other neutral oil
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil or other neutral oil
• 1 medium red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced – if you’re big into fried onions you could do double this
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• Heaped tsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups basmati or Jasmine rice – rinsed well
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt
• pepper
• 1 cup stock of your choice