I just looked at the Nurition Label on my cheap white rice and I discovered that a 1/4 cup of rice has no fat, 3 g of protein and lots of B vitamins. That made me feel pretty good, especially since I have always felt guilty for not buying good organic brown rice or wild rice. My family just really don’t care for those, even though we should. I was glad to see that just my basic rice lined up pretty well nutritionally.
So here are a bunch of speedy recipes which take only about as long as it takes to cook your rice. They are tasty, healthy, quick, and inexpensive.
Curried Rice: My favorite! With your boiling or steaming rice, add a few sliced scallions, pea pods and baby carrots if you have any or all of them; skip if you don’t. Season with a few tablespoons of grated ginger root or one tbsp. of ground ginger, two teaspoons of curry powder and a little salt or liquid amino.
Fried Rice: Cook some rice with baby carrots. Add fresh mushrooms toward the end. Optional: Cut up some partially thawed chicken breast and saute in butter or oil and garlic. When chicken is no longer pink, simmer some chicken broth, chopped onions or scallions with the chicken. Crack two eggs in and stir until they are ‘stringey’. Blend with cooked rice mixture. Season with liquid amino or soy sauce. You can skip the chicken and simply simmer the chicken broth with mushrooms.
Spanish rice: Very Easy! Your favorite salsa in a 1 to 2 ratio with cooked rice. We love Newman’s Own Tequila Lime. I told you it was easy. Sprinkle some shredded cheese and microwave if you need more protein another step!
Divine rice: My grandma’s recipe secret; it is also amazingly easy. When you make the rice, use a package of french onion soup mix in the water. When the rice is cooked, add a can of mushroom soup. This is great with pork chops or chicken legs and thighs; when I make it this way. I rinse the meat and add a few cups of water and 1 cup of uncooked rice. I add 1-2 cans of cream soup depending on the amount of meat. I sprinkle on one envelope of onion soup mix and bake for about 1-2 hours at 325 to 350 degrees.
Breakfast Rice: This is a Dutch treat! To your cooked rice, add milk, butter, sugar or honey, raisins and cinnamon. Makes a great breakfast. It’s like a stove-top rice pudding.
Rice Pilaf: This basic recipe is also very easy. To your cooking rice, add a bag of frozen peas and carrrots and french onion soup mix or chopped onions and garlic. Pilaf is a tasty way to get in the vegetables.
Here are a few rice recipes to get you started. We love to serve just about any meat or fish with rice as a healthful, tasty, inexpensive base for countless meals.
