More and more, Trader Joe’s is becoming our go-to brand for frozen rice. We think their Vegetable Fried Rice is great, and their Japanese Style Fried Rice is absolutely killer. So of course we would eventually try the Trader Joe’s Peruvian Style Chimichurri Rice with Vegetables. It was inevitable.
In the Fearless Flyer article for this product, the Trader Joe’s team claims that chimichurri is a condiment that is as common in Argentina as ketchup is in the United States. We’ve never been to Argentina, so we’re going to have to take their word on that. But even if that article was stretching the truth a bit, we were still very excited to try a South American-style rice dish.
Now, we decided to run an experiment here. Normally, we cook Trader Joe’s rice in a pan on the stovetop, but this time we thought we’d try the microwave instructions. We’ve had great success with microwavable fried rice in the past, so we figured it couldn’t hurt here. We dumped the rice into a microwave-safe dish, then tossed it in the microwave for four minutes. We then pulled it out, gave it a quick stir, then popped it back in for two more minutes.
This actually came out of the microwave kind of watery, as you can see in the picture above. We let this sit on the countertop for about five minutes to cool off, and by the time we had returned, it had thickened up quite a bit. While it’s still a little juicier than it would be if cooked in a pan, we think it comes out just fine in the microwave.
This rice has a very tomatoey taste, almost like a salsa but not quite. Diced tomatoes are the main ingredient in the chimichurri, so that makes a lot of sense. Underneath that tomato flavor, though, is something creamy, almost like a sour cream. This comes thanks to the addition of crème fraiche, which is actually very similar to sour cream — in fact, they’re almost the same thing. Then, beneath all that is a hint of lime juice, which really completes the flavor.
There are veggies mixed in as well, so don’t be surprised to find tomatoes, onions, and even peas swimming around in this rice.
The package claims that a bag should include 4.5 servings, though we disagree. In fact, we ended up eating the entire package in one sitting. Oops!
One serving contains 120 calories (45 from fat) and 620 mg of sodium. That doesn’t sound bad at all for anyone who can actually stop eating after just one serving. Our gluttonous meal of a full package comes out to 540 calories (202.5 from fat) and a whopping 2,790 mg of sodium. So much for that diet!
Trader Joe’s Peruvian Style Chimichurri Rice with Vegetables is an amazing rice dish, no matter how you cook it. We also tried adding some of Trader Joe’s Italian Sausage-Less Sausage, and the two ended up being a great pair. Of course, you could always eat this on its own because it’s loaded with flavor straight out of the package.
To learn more about the ingredients and nutrition content in this Trader Joe’s rice, check out our package scan below.
