How To Cook Brown Rice - Vegetarian Fried Rice and Kimchi Fried Rice Recipes

Kimchi Fried Rice served with bean sprout saladOne of the easiest whole grains to introduce into daily meals is brown rice. Brown rice comes in three basic varieties - long grain (such as jasmine and basmati), medium grain, and short grain.

Long grain rice is just that, longer and thinner than the other two rices. Medium grain rice is shorter and plumper, like an arborio rice.  Short grain rice is even more round, and is soft and sticky when cooked.  For everyday cooking, I use either long grain or medium grain brown rice.
Clockwise from left: Jasmine, Basmati and Medium Grain Brown Rice
Some people are intimidated by cooking rice.  Don't be. Cooking rice is actually really simple once you figure out the correct rice to water ratio and cooking time.  Too little water or not enough cooking time will result in hard rice, and too much water will result in wet rice.  I find that soaking brown rice for at least an hour before cooking helps reduce cooking time and ensures a softer cooked rice.  If you have a rice cooker, cooking rice is mindless, just push a button and wait (you can buy a rice cooker with a brown rice setting). Cooking rice on the stovetop is actually very simple too.

Whether you're cooking rice in a rice cooker or in a pot on the stove, it's important to rinse the rice thoroughly before cooking to remove some of the starches. According to Andrea Nguyen, cookbook author and teacher, rinsing rice prior to cooking yields a cleaner tasting rice without clumps. I usually rinse my rice 4-5 times, by filling the pot of rice with water, stirring it around with my hands, draining the water off, and repeating this process.

I try to make extra brown rice at the beginning of the week so I can easily heat some up during the rest of the week. Another delicious way to enjoy brown rice is to make fried rice.  The nice part about using brown rice for fried rice is that the sauces used add color to the rice, so most people won't even know they're eating brown rice (my kids didn't!).

Two fun ways to spice up boring plain rice are Vegetable Fried Rice and Kimchi Fried Rice. Vegetable Fried Rice and Kimchi Fried Rice ("Bokumbap") are a great way to use up any extra vegetables or kimchi in your refrigerator.  Both recipes include cabbage, an anti-cancer cruciferous vegetable (kimchi is a Korean fermented cabbage).


How To Cook Brown Rice2 cups brown rice
3 1/2  cups water