Brown rice with beets, leeks & maitake mushrooms: perfect side for Thanksgiving

Over the weekend I made Mixed Greens with Green Apples, Beets, and Pistachios from a Vegan Holiday Kitchen cookbook I received for a review.  

What I liked most about the salad, was the combination of beets, toasted pistachios and cranberries. I decided to use the same ingredients, but in a side dish: this Brown Rice with Beets, Leeks & Maitake Mushrooms would be great for anyone who is vegan or vegetarian, or for someone who is trying to cut down on meat consumption. I also think it'd be a great dish for your Thanksgiving table.

Quick THANK YOU to Philly Homegrown: a while back I received a fun assortment of food made in Philadelphia. For this recipe I used dried maitake mushrooms from The Mushroom Cap.

Ingredients
1 ounce dried maitake mushrooms (~1.5 cups)
1.5 cups boiling water
3/4 cups brown rice
2 teaspoon olive oil
1 leek: white part only, thinly sliced
1 red chile, thinly sliced {Thanks, Danielle!}
2 beets, roasted at 400 for 45-90 minutes, cooled, peeled, cubed
1/4 cup cranberries
1/4 cup shelled pistachios, toasted and chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
1. Cover the dry mushrooms with boiling water for about 10 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and save the liquid
2. Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a pan, add rice and saute for a few minutes. Add the "mushroom" liquid through a strainer. Season the rice with salt and bring everything to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and let the rice simmer for about 30 minutes. {Mine might have been the quick cooking brown rice: you might have to cook yours for a longer amount of time}
3. In a separate pan, heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add leeks and red chile and saute for 5 minutes. Add in the maitake mushrooms and saute for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add cranberries and beets to the leeks, chile and mushrooms and adjust for salt & pepper.
5. Once the rice is cooked, combine it with the vegetables. Serve topped with pistachios.

Would you combine rice with beets? My mom thought it was a strange idea ;) I thought everything tasted great together.