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15 Thirty-Second Ways to Jazz Up Plain Rice

As you can imagine, these can be combined; use your judgment

Mark Bittman
Heated
2 min readOct 18, 2019

Luchesar for Getty Images

The simplest way to prepare rice and grains is to boil them. I prefer using only the amount of water they will fully absorb while they become tender, but you can also cook them pasta-style in plenty of boiling water and drain them. Toasting in a dry skillet or sauteing in a skillet with a little oil or other fat can enhance the flavor and texture of the grains, and of course you’ll probably want to add other ingredients at least some of the times, but there’s rarely anything more complicated than that.

Once cooked, you can keep rice and grains warm and fluffy for up to 30 minutes or so. After fluffing, leave the lid on and set the pot over the lowest heat possible or wrap the pot in a towel. Leftover rice and grains will keep in the fridge for days, and grains store well in the freezer for months. So make a double or even triple batches whenever possible. As for those additions, here they are:

  1. Stir in a tablespoon or more of butter.
  2. Stir in a tablespoon or more of olive oil.
  3. Drizzle with soy sauce.
  4. Add lots of pepper.
  5. Stir in a couple of tablespoons minced fresh herbs, ideally warmed first in melted butter.

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Heated
Heated

Published in Heated

Food from every angle: A publication from Medium x Mark Bittman

Mark Bittman
Mark Bittman

Written by Mark Bittman

Has published 30 books, including How to Cook Everything and VB6: The Case for Part-Time Veganism. Newsletter at markbittman.com.

Responses (13)

What are your thoughts?

“Instead of some or all of the water, use stock.”
Or add 1/3 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water to 1 cup of rice then add lime juice while you’re fluffing it up.

6

Great stuff! I like to sautée some carrots and garlic, add cumin seeds then cook the rice covered. The carrot gives a super nice sweet touch and combined with cumin it deepens the flavors!

5

S I’d add saute onions and celery in butter then toast the rice and add chicken stock to cook.

10