What Is Good To Add To Rice For Flavor

8 Things You Never Thought To Add To Rice

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Growing upward Chinese ways experiencing rice as the base of every meal. When I was a young girl, I assumed everyone'due south family had an electric cooker on the kitchen counter with steamed white rice on the "keep warm" setting at all times. While my parents regularly cooked soups, braised meats, stir-fried veggies, and made a diversity of other dishes, we always enjoyed those foods with pocket-size bowls of rice alongside. Not merely until I became a young adult with roommates did I discover that not all people eat rice 3 times a day. In fact, I observed for the first time — at the age of xix, mind you — the seemingly odd practice of cooking rice in a pot on the stove rather than using an electric rice cooker, which seemed infinitely more convenient.

Now you might think that by the fourth dimension I started cooking for myself I would take become thoroughly sick of rice, having eaten enough of the bland grains for an entire lifetime. Alas, no. Over the years, I have really developed an appreciation for this incredibly versatile food and its unique ability to meld seamlessly with other ingredients, creating delicious harmony in easy ways while still managing to magically transform obviously Jane dishes into extraordinary meals. Whether you lot similar to cook bones white rice, nuttier brown with its plethora of nutrients, or pre-seasoned yellow rice, you'll be pleased to know there are countless means to reinvent the commonplace grains, turning them into dishes yous can adjust, dearest, and count on for satisfying sustenance.

Yous might be surprised to discover that rice has the potential to be downright glorious when paired with everyday ingredients yous're likely to have in your pantry or fridge anyhow. While the list of ingredients and recipes below is in no style comprehensive, I promise it provides you with a starting indicate and inspires y'all to take standard rice to the next level, elevating it in streamlined ways using just a handful of add together-ins. Trust me. Every bit a lifelong eater and (now) maker of rice, I tin attest to its culinary versatility and indispensable place in the repertoire of whatever practiced cook. Read on, experiment, and enjoy.

Stock or broth

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Plain steamed rice can be a bore. Luckily, cooking rice in a flavorful stock or broth instead of water tin can take your dinner from bland to enticingly savory pretty quickly. Whether you simmer rice in vegetable, chicken, seafood, or beefiness broth, you'll be rewarded with a pot that boasts depth of flavour, tasting like it took mode more than effort to achieve. Don't have stock or goop on manus? Endeavour using water with your favorite brand of bouillon cubes to accomplish a like result. This is my go-to flavour-enhancing technique for cooking rice, and I have a feeling information technology may become yours besides.

This recipe from Food.com is easy, streamlined, and simple to adapt. Rice is cooked in craven goop along with butter for a rich dish that aims to delight. Utilise whatsoever rice you accept on hand, use margarine instead of butter — any you lot desire!

Make a straightforward rice pilaf using stock with this recipe from Merely Recipes. Made with a handful of standard aromatics and stock of your pick, this dish is rustic enough for a weeknight din and sufficiently elegant to serve to dinner guests.

This recipe from Only a Compression is all almost the economy of cooking rice. Made with merely h2o, rice, and bouillon, this dish all the same manages to achieve deep flavors. You can whip this up any time you want and with little notice, which is pretty awesome.

Vegetables

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Rice is tasty with veggies on top, but did you know you tin cook it all together in one pot for a convenient medley that's fifty-fifty more attracting thank you to smashing, flavour-melding magic? Yep. If y'all're cooking the rice on the stove, try adding diced peppers, carrots, eggplant, or whatsoever your eye desires to the water along with the grains. So just let them simmer together. You tin can do this in an electric rice cooker, as well. Add more delicate, leafier produce like spinach or chard closer to the end of the rice'south cooking time — and the aforementioned goes for frozen vegetables like peas, carrots, and store-bought mixes. I frequently add together already cooked vegetables left over from a previous meal to my day's rice to use them up and create a whole new dinner.

This recipe from Eating Well is colorful, flavorful, and easy. Multicolored bell peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini are cooked with rice for a one-pot dish that melds vibrant veggies with perfectly seasoned grains.

This Chinese takeout-inspired recipe from Serious Eats is pretty darn tasty if you ask this Chinese gal. The dearest duo of carrots and peas join forces with scallions, soy sauce, and sesame to produce an addictive dish of classic fried rice.

This recipe from Epicurious turns bibimbap into a dish easily whipped upwards at home. Skip the wait at your local Korean eatery and make this instead. Rice is served with a heap of veggies ranging from sprouts and zucchini to carrots and spinach.

Herbs

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Cooking is about smelling as much every bit it is about tasting. As such, I like to comprise fresh or dried herbs into my rice during cooking so my kitchen can smell amazing to all who walk by. Herbs like rosemary, oregano, and thyme take your standard rice dish pretty far. They lend aroma and depth of flavor in a subtle way, which is e'er a skilful thing, right? Whichever herbs you choose to stir into your pot or rice, a simple bay leaf is ever recommended when you want to infuse everything with that indefinable woodsy quality that complements but virtually anything.

Simple and aromatic, this recipe from Food & Wine is sophisticated and easy to brand. A medley of fresh herbs like cilantro, parsley, dill, and tarragon is combined with basmati rice for a pot of weeknight grains that's several notches above the balance.

Fresh herbs are the key ingredients in this rice recipe from Bon Appetit. Toasted garlic rice gets a flavour boost from fresh parsley, cilantro, mint, and marjoram. A clasp of lime juice brightens upward the whole dish.

While I can't endorse the exercise of walking around a kitchen without wearing proper footwear, this recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen does make skillful utilize of the fragrant herb and rice philharmonic. Archetype Italian herbs like thyme, oregano, and basil save the twenty-four hours.

Cheese

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Slow-cooking risotto isn't the only kind of rice that can benefit from the addition of cheese. Effort calculation your favorite grated cheese to a regular pot of rice to imbue it with tons of umami-rich season. Like cheesy pasta, cheesy rice is a universally appealing dish. Simple, flavorful, and oh so gooey, the finished dish is similar a throwback to childhood every single time. Opt for grown-up cheeses like Gorgonzola or caprine animal if you lot want. Choose a terrific sharp cheddar or Monterey Jack to experience like a kid again. Whatever cheeses you end up adding to your rice, yous will not regret your decision.

Yes, you should make this cheesy broiled rice dish from Chowhound at your earliest convenience. Foam, butter, and actress sharp white cheddar are combined with rice in a meal that tastes like the about comforting hug you lot've ever received.

Endeavor this recipe from Food Network when yous're in the mood for coincidental Southwestern flavors in your rice dish. Peppers, Monterey Jack cheese, and cayenne give this rice casserole flavor notes akin to tacos, which is always the correct management to get in.

This recipe from Damn Delicious is a pared-down version of cheesy rice that includes some veggies so information technology's healthy, right? One pot, super cheesy, and garlicky AF. This is my kind of rice dish.

Nuts, seeds, and dried fruits

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For extra doses of protein and fiber, attempt adding nuts, seeds, or dried fruits to your rice. These trail mix-adjacent extras are a great way to give your plainly rice a texture heave. You'll love the unexpected bite you arrive every forkful. Whether y'all stir in toasted pine nuts for some Mediterranean flair, add a handful of sesame seeds to play up the nutty flavors, or incorporate chopped dried fruits for a Western farsi-inspired have, your rice will be anything only ordinary. In add-on to lending full general intrigue to a pot of rice, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits accent the grains with pockets of sweet and salty flavor.

This have on traditional Western farsi jeweled rice comes from The New York Times. Fragrant basmati rice is speckled with "jewels" or fried currants, apricots, and berries along with nutty almonds and pistachios. The consequence is a rice dish that'due south beautiful to behold and deliciously complex.

This recipe from Gustation plays upward classic Moroccan flavors by combining rice with a rich medley of nuts. Cashews, almonds, and pino nuts mingle with orange peels and currants to reach nutty sweetness.

Walnuts and raisins aren't merely for snacking on during a hike. They pair excellently with rice in this recipe from Fine Cooking. Bawdy dark-brown rice is enhanced past the toasted walnuts and stale fruit in this multilayered dish that's as hearty as it is nutritious.

Eggs

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Rule of pollex: eggs are good with everything, merely they're actress fabled with rice. That'southward an inalienable truth. Endeavor calculation lightly whisked eggs into your rice during cooking in a skillet or wok for instant fried rice. Add poached eggs for a runny yolk outcome that leaves your fluffy grains soaked in liquid gilded. Fried eggs? Why not. The reality is that yous can add together eggs to rice in whatever manner you like and the dish volition plow out to be delicious, comforting, and amend than it was before y'all added the eggs. Yous can do no wrong.

This recipe from The Woks of Life is i of my favorite ways to pair eggs and rice. Egg fried rice is simple, certain, but information technology never fails to make people happy. Fact. Turmeric-flavored eggs give this dish its je ne sais quoi.

Bacon and egg can be a breakfast combo or information technology can exist the perfect add-in for your side by side rice dish. This recipe from Epicurious is an all-day treat that incorporates bacon slices, eggs, and freshly cooked rice.

This recipe from Washoku combines a few of the near bones ingredients to produce the best midnight snack ever. Potatoes, rice, and eggs join forces, and the cease result is sublime.

Spices

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My beloved for the spiced-up pot of rice is dizzying. Even the most novice cook has a few containers of spices tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Incorporating them into plain rice is a skillful mode to experiment with aromas and flavors in guild to run into which ones suit yous and which ones go well together. Play around with unlike combinations to reach the effect y'all desire. Warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, and anise give rice flavorful accents reminiscent of Moroccan cuisine. Garam masala, cumin, and turmeric transform it into an aromatic Indian-inspired dish that smells similar your favorite curry. Allspice with a dash of dried thyme gives off Caribbean vibes. The possibilities are endless.

This recipe from BBC Good Food incorporates warm spices like cardamom, cinnamon, and turmeric into a pot of basmati rice. The result? An aromatic dish you'll desire to recreate often.

This dish from Veg Recipes of Republic of india is a great fashion to use up leftover rice. With but a few spices like garam masala, chili pulverisation, and coriander, you can plow last night's dinner into this evening'southward culinary masterpiece.

Try this recipe from Spicy Southern Kitchen when you're peckish s-of-the-border flavors. This dish of Mexican rice gets its oomph from a alloy of ancho chili pulverisation and fragrant cumin.

Sauces

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Rice is a base that soaks up anything perfectly. As such, calculation a flossy, savory, securely flavorful sauce is probable a wonderful thought. The sauciness moistens every grain and turns regular rice into a decadent dish fit for a male monarch. Super hearty and absolutely satisfying, smothered rice is tasty and extremely versatile, too. Try adding gravy for a deep, meaty flavour. Pesto lends vivid color, herbaceous aroma, and nuttiness to an otherwise plain food. Zesty romesco fabricated with garlic, nuts, and pepper lends kicky Spanish flair. You can brand a sauce for the rice or apply one you have hanging out in the refrigerator.

Check out this unfussy recipe from Existent Cajun Recipes. This Louisiana combo of rice and gravy is wildly popular and for good reason. Rich gravy and fluffy rice brand quite the tasty pair. Savour with chicken or any protein you like.

This recipe from The Yummy Life adds pesto'due south savory magic to rice and transforms it. Heartier, chewy grains of dark-brown rice are complemented by nutty pesto and pine basics in a dish that tastes mouthwateringly seamless and natural.

This romesco rice recipe from Food52 is ridiculously dreamy. A from-scratch romesco is made with almonds, lycopersicon esculentum, peppers, and garlic. Combined with easy white rice, the dish is resplendent.

All you've got in the pantry is rice? No problem. Hopefully, these ideas will help you detect new ways to make your rice neat.