Spanish rice

American  

noun

1. rice prepared with chopped onions, tomatoes, green peppers, and sometimes diced ham, seasoned with cayenne pepper and mixed with butter.

---

Spanish rice British  

noun

1. rice cooked with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, etc, and often flavoured with saffron

---

Etymology

Origin of Spanish rice

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

It’s plated with crunchy puffed Spanish rice and an elegant butter-rich black-bean sauce — a riff on rice and beans.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2017

While I walked blindly through the valleys of paella disappointment, a few brave souls were at work on righting the wrongs of the Spanish rice world.

From The Guardian • Mar. 10, 2017

For engineering reasons, this hefty bite merits its own thick-but-pliable house-made tortilla, half of which is coated with a muddy stew of bittersweet mole chicken and the other half covered with Spanish rice.

From Washington Post • Jun. 4, 2015

At St. Mary’s school, Monday’s lunch was to be Mexicali chicken, Spanish rice and golden corn.

From New York Times • May 28, 2011

“We talked some, he was very shy, but after a while he said, ‘One thing I really like is Spanish rice.’

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote