Brown rice


Brown Rice
Brown Rice
Brown Rice

I’m sure you’ve heard that brown rice is better for you than white rice.  There are many web pages that go into all the specifics of exactly why.  I don’t need to repeat that.  I’m just going to give you the basic reasons brown rice is better and then give you some suggestions for what to do with it so your family won’t freak out when you switch them over.  If some of these reasons sound oversimplified, it’s because they are- just trust me on this. 😉

White rice starts as brown rice but then has all the “good stuff” stripped off.  Here is the result of this:

  • Brown rice is higher in fiber which makes you feel full and helps keep your insides moving
  • Brown rice is higher in vitamins and minerals which are (duh) good for you
  • Brown rice is lower glycemic, which (very roughly) translates into “it doesn’t make you fat”

Ok, so how do you use brown rice?  First, it takes longer to cook and needs more water since it still has it’s outer bran coating.  You’ll need to cook it for about 50min with 2x as much water as rice- so for 1 cup of brown rice use 2 cups of water.  If you have a rice cooker, it will work just fine- just adjust the water and the rice cooker will automatically cook for the right time.  If you’re making a recipe that calls for uncooked white rice, you can parboil brown rice for 30 min and then add to the recipe.

To get your family used to brown rice, try making separate half batches of white and brown rice and then mix them together when cooked.  You can vary the size of the batches until they’re eating mostly or all brown rice.  Brown rice also makes great fried rice- they may not even notice the difference.  Also use brown rice in receipes by either fully cooking or parboiling as mentioned in the paragraph above.

If you come up with a good way to get your family on the brown rice bandwagon, post a comment to let us all know.

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