Thank you all for submitting your Ask the Readers questions last week. I loved all the questions I got and will be sharing them over the next few weeks. If you want to submit and Ask the Readers question you can do so here.
One of the questions I got last week was from Diana. She is looking for some help with recipes that contain rice.
Here is Diana’s question.
Since becoming gluten free we have increased our use of rice as a side. I recently learned to make a basic rice pilaf and dirty rice and I am looking for more good rice recipes. Do you or your readers know of any good rice cookbooks that will give a variety of recipes that use rice as a main dish or a side? My husband purchased Seductions of Rice by Alford & Duguid but I was disappointed that most recipes were meal recipes that used steamed rice on the side.
I know you have a collection of old cookbooks just wondering if you or your readers have any suggestions even website with good rice recipes.
This is a great question. I love it because we also eat a lot of rice. Rice is inexpensive and easy to serve in a variety of ways. I don’t have any cookbooks that are specific to cooking rice, but I am hoping some of my readers will be able to help.
I don’t have a rice cookbook, but here are a few of our favorite rice dishes.
- Mexican Rice
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Breakfast Fried Rice
- Eggs and Soy Sauce over Rice
- Enchilada Rice
- Ground Beef Fried Rice
Now I am hoping you all can help. Do you have an recipes, links, cookbooks or sources for good recipes that use rice? I can’t wait to hear what you have to share.
Sorry I don’t use rice anymore since I discovered Quinoa! I would suggest using Pinterest as a resource if you are not already signed up!
We love rice! We eat a lot of rice bowls which can be any combination of good things over rice: barbecue chicken and black beans; chicken, bacon, avocado salsa, sour cream and cheese; black beans, salsa, sour cream and cheese; chicken, broccoli and soy sauce: pork and black beans; roasted vegetables, chicken or pork, and soy sauce; etc.
I agree. We love doing rice bowls. Taco bowls and burrito bowls are some of our favorites. You can really vary how you serve them so that you don’t feel like you are always eating the same thing. I love the roasted vegetable idea!
We love taco bowls, too! I should have also said that I keep a supply of cooked proteins in the freezer: pulled pork, chicken, taco filling, and barbecue chicken thighs. And I have fallen in love with roasted vegetables! So easy and so good! I just make a big batch every week and eat them as a side or throw them in pasta or rice.
One of our favorites is Korean Beef Bowls. I like to mix in some broccoli.
https://damndelicious.net/2013/07/07/korean-beef-bowl/
Thanks!
food.Iskcon desire tree.com has some great recipes for rice dishes – and tons of other good stuff too. Any book by Kurma dasa is a winner. His yogurt rice, seriously, anyone would kill for it.
I like to use rice in soup, cabbage rolls, a stir fry( make sure it is a day old and cold). This might not be a lot of help but I am about the only one in my family that eats rice. You could look up Chinese dishes with rice or Indian dishes YouTube has some stuff you could spend the day watching sometime.
I pray this helps.
MerriLyn
We have learned to eat more brown rice after I found a sure-fire-way to cook it–this method makes perfect brown rice every time.
In a large pot with a tight-fitting lid, add 6-10 cups of water, 1-2 cups brown rice, 1-2 teaspoons of salt, and 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil.
Bring to a boil, turn heat to medium low, cover partially with lid,and cook for 30 minutes. (Water should simmer during this cooking time.)
Pour rice and water into a colander. Immediately, put partially cooked rice back into pan, cover tightly, and let set for 20 more minutes.
Fluff rice with a fork.
Note: My favorite brown rice is jasmine.
Note: The cooked rice freezes very well. Put frozen rice into a microwave-safe dish and microwave until hot.
Rice Cooker (the manufacturers) Websites are a good source of recipes for cooking combo cooks right in the rice cooker &/or finishing in a crock pot or oven. E.g. https://zojirushi.com/app/recipe/rice-cookers
We have a zojirushi rice cooker and it’s SO useful. When we get home we just start it up and cook what we’ll put over it while it’s cooking. It’s pretty much impossible to burn rice in it, although if you let it sit for hours the bottom will brown a little and be crispy. So convenient, and I’m terrible at cooking plain rice on a stove.
Recipes- We use some of the ‘hamburger helper’ rice recipe knock offs and work from that. I make a taco rice with taco spice, green onions, beef broth, hamburger, and rice cooked as a one pot on the stove. Seriously though, online food bloggers do all sorts of healthy knock of recipes for things like Hamburger Helper that you can tweak to fit what you like. I also make a cheesy/broccoli rice that’s very good. I’m fond of one pot meals when possible.
Sometimes, I’ll serve pinto beans with bacon over rice, adding salsa and cheese. That’s good. But you have to cook the pinto beans so they’re soft and have a bit of a sauce – we start with dried ones soaking overnight.
Hamburger with peas and soy sauce over rice is tasty too.
I love my Zojirushi rice cooker! It is the best rice cooker I have had.
Chicken and Rice soup. Also Rice bowls with veggies and any meat. Lots of combinations can be made.
I don’t know of a rice cookbook, but Pinterest has lots of great recipes. This is a great recipe for gluten free black beans & rice.
https://marysbusykitchencom.blogspot.com/2012/12/black-beans-rice-with-cuban-twist.html
Also, Asian fried rice or stuffed peppers are great main dishes.
My family loves risotto, but I don’t love making it, until I found Ina Garten’s oven made version on Foodnetwork.com. I make it a main dish by adding cooked meat at the end, a chopped rotisserie chicken or such. I hope you like it too.
We love this one pot chicken ans rice dish
https://natashaskitchen.com/2014/06/26/creamy-chicken-and-rice-recipe-a-one-pot-meal/
My tip: batch cook rice so you have intentionally way too much. The secret of Asian fried rice dishes is this: always use refrigerated, leftover rice.
I make mine with fresh stir fry veggies, and any leftover meats you may have in the fridge – just dice up and add whatever’s on hand, if you’re not a vegetarian. Add in and cook the mushrooms and peppers LAST, if your family likes those, so they don’t overcook. Since you’re gluten free you’ll probably want to make your own sauces. I’m sure those are avail on the internet. But I use whatever I’m hungry for at the moment – soy, teriyaki, hoisin, sweet n sour, etc. Some people call these “rice bowls” instead of stir fry. I stir fry mine, without oil or very little oil, in a cast iron skillet. I’m fresh out of woks at my house. I think the difference is, like tex-mex is NOT authentic, neither are my creations authentically stir-fry; so maybe “bowls” is more correct. Whatever. In China, they eat anything and everything including insects, in stir-fry. So I don’t care if my stir-fry isn’t authentic. It’s authentically anything I can lay my hands on.
My other big tip is yep you guessed it . . . speaking of tex-mex, I LOVE tex-mex food. Burritos, enchilada soup, rice and beans . . . oh yes. Also look at “southwest” recipes. Also you can use leftover rice for these, too.
Find something the kids order at fast food that has rice in it . . . and come up with your own homemade version of it at home.
Burritos freeze well, and save lots of money.
The trick with rice is to have completely dif flavors ea time you serve it. I.e. meal plan for American, Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc. Whatever your family really likes. And the good thing is, rice can be made into any flavor! Get 2 or 3 go-to recipes that your family loves, for ea flavor; 2 American, 2 Italian, 3 Mexican, etc. Then switch them up, meal-planning-wise.
Alton Brown’s Baked Brown Rice
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-brown-rice-recipe.html
Stephanie O’Dea, The Crockpot Lady, is a great gluten free resource. Here’s a list from her site of crockpot recipes that contain rice. Tho Lynn’s list above, is making me drool.
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-8452466625121508%3A9nrwe5f2hma&ie=UTF-8&q=rice&sa=Search&siteurl=www.ayearofslowcooking.com%2F&ref=stephanieodea.com%2F&ss=551j116301j4#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=rice&gsc.page=1
I love Beth Hensperger & Julie Kaufman’s The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook. It packed with delicious rice recipes and a whole lot more that you can cook in a rice cooker.