Greek Spinach Rice Pilaf Recipe - Gluten Free, Vegan Option, Allergy Friendly

I'm having a lot of guests and made some rice, but my kids were hungry and had some first so I realized that there wouldn't be enough rice left from what I originally made and decided to make another batch. Only I wasn't sure that I wanted to make another batch of plain white rice, and when I passed the door to my backyard, I saw a large amount of wild swiss chard (officially called sea beet) growing there and decided to make my rice with that. 

I googled to get some ideas of how people made this type of dish, only I searched for spinach rice dishes since this tastes like spinach too, and can be used interchangeably, and found quite a few recipes. I loosely based my recipe on this one that I found for spanikorizo, a Greek spinach and rice dish, but they also have a version made with swiss chard, called seskoulorizo. However, this really reminds me of my friend Zhanna's Bukharian bakhsh plov recipe, an Uzbeki greens and rice dish, generally made with cilantro instead of spinach or swiss chard. But because bakhsh plov is made with beef, I decided to use chicken broth in my recipe instead of water, but water works just as well, and is how spanikorizo generally is made.

This dish is delicious and warm and comforting for the winter, and it is pretty cheap to make as well. Hope you enjoy it too!

Greek Spinach Rice Pilaf Recipe - Gluten Free, Vegan Option, Allergy Friendly

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
2 large onions
3 cups packed greens, either spinach or swiss chard or sea beet (or honestly any other non bitter green would work)
1 1/2 tablesppons dry dill
1 tsp garlic powder
3 cups rice
6 cups water/broth
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2-4 tablespoons lemon juice, or to taste

Instructions:

1. Saute onions in oil until soft. 

2. Chop your greens very finely. Add them to the onions.

3. Cook greens until fully wilted.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients other than lemon juice and bring to a boil. 

5. Cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.

6. Mix and add lemon juice to taste.

Enjoy!

Have you ever made greens with rice? What did you put in your dish? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?
Anyone else make food for guests and then your kids eat half of it before the guests even arrive, or is it just me?