Guide To WHITE RICE That Cooks Should Know

This is about getting more familiar with white rice in areas like rice types, preparing it, cooking it, nutrition, flavorings, and links to different rice recipes. Also, this is a part of our Food Guides & Resources category.

Good, Popular Brands of Long Grain Rice

Fortunately, long grain rice is the popular standard package in the grocery store. Also, you can use this “extra” long grain rice and it won’t impact a recipe.

• Mahatma
• Blue Ribbon

Popular Types of Fast Cooking Rice

These are types of fast cooking rice types. They cook faster than regular rice because they are already partially cooked.

• Par-cooked
• Converted
• Boil-in-Bag
• Minute (or 5-minute)

White Rice and Water Ratio

It’s always best to follow the rice package instructions for water ratios and their recommended cooking method. However, here’s the guideline overall for the different types of white rice.

1. For using regular white rice and water, use twice as much water as rice, i.e., 2 cups water for every 1 cup white rice.
2. However, Instant rice (e.g., minute rice) use 1 cup of water to each cup of instant rice. That’s because instant rice is a partially cooked rice.
3. And the easiest of all is the boil-in-a-bag rice where you don’t have to necessarily measure the water as long as it covers the bagged rice.

How To Prepare White Rice

Some cooks will wash the uncooked rice grains first. There are several ways to accomplish this. One way is to rinse the rice in a small hole colander.

However, another more popular way is to put the uncooked rice in a pot, fill it with water, and then tip it to dump out the water. In this method, you use the lid or your hand and prevent the loss of rice while pouring. Also, some professionals will repeat this washing 3 times. The idea is to filter out some of the manufacturing processing particles. Also, some pros say this removes some of the starch.

However, to be fair, there are also some experts who say this rinsing (aka “washing”) removes some of the nutrients. So, this is where there are conflicting schools of knowledge on the topic.

How To Cook Long Grain Rice in a Pot

This is how to cook long grain rice. When cooking in a pot on the stove, it is the most popular way for maximum flavor. You can cook it quite easily by following these simple 3 steps.

1. Boil the water (2 cups) and turn off the burner.
2. Stir in the rice (1 cup) and cover the pot, leaving it on the hot, turned off burner.
3. It’s ready in 25 minutes. Tip: Don’t lift the lid ever during this period.

See this actual pot on a stove recipe with all the details in our post of “How Do You Cook White Rice“.

Other Ways to Cook Rice

Some of the other methods of cooking rice have faster times with the penalty of lesser flavor and nutritional values. These other methods are like cooking minute rice, boil-in-a-bag, and in a microwave. Also, there are some other ways that are longer such as Instant Pot and slow cooker.

White Rice Yield per Cup

When cooking rice, it expands and gives you a larger volume, which varies across different kinds of rice you might use. For example, minute rice yields twice as much usually. So, 1 cup dry minute rice cooked in 1 cup water yields about 2 cups cooked rice. But, 1 cup long grain (or extra long grain) regular rice gives about 3 to 3-1/2 cups cooked rice when boiled in 2 cups of water.

How To Make White Rice Flavorful

There are lots of ways to make plain white rice flavorful and taste better. For example, you can try adding in some popular flavorings. Here are some simple ideas for you that I recommend you try individually instead of on the whole pot. The amounts mentioned here are referencing per serving like per one cup:

• Add a splash of soy sauce to taste; it’s very salty tasting already
• Fold in some butter, salt, and pepper (like you do for mashed potatoes).
• Pour in a splash of soy sauce, followed by a very minimal touch of rice vinegar (or other vinegar) and mix it up.
• Add about a tbsp. of soy sauce, a tbsp. of a chopped up green onion, and a pinch of garlic powder.
• Mix in about 1/2 tsp. of Mrs. Dash.
• Put a scoop of rice on a large lettuce leaf, sprinkle across 1/2 tsp. of Mrs. Dash, pour across a tbsp. of soy sauce, and fold it up to eat as if it were a small lettuce sandwich.
• And you can also immediately take the cooked rice and put it in a medium high heated skillet. Stir fry it using some sesame oil, diced green onion, soy sauce, and some garlic powder, all to taste.
• Heat up some chili with beans, put them atop the scoop of white rice (equal amounts of rice and chili). Then, garnish that with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. That can be a main course or a lunch.
• Make some quick white sauce as a gravy and pour it over the rice with a bit of salt and pepper to taste, if needed. That makes a very nice side dish for most main courses.

White Rice Nutrition Facts 1 Cup

Here are some nutritional values for 1 cup of white rice. For example, see its carbs, calories, and others. So, one cup of regular, plain cooked white rice is about:

• 50 Carbs
• 225 kcal (Calories)
• 4g Protein
• All fats 0.4g
• Sodium 11mg
• Potassium 71mg
• Fiber 1g
• Calcium 22mg
• Iron 0.5mg
• Sugar 0.1g

This shown recipe for white rice is illustrating each serving as 1 cup cooked rice.

Related Articles

Here are some rice related recipes that you might enjoy.

Conclusion

So, now you know more about white rice. For example, you’ve learned things like the different types, links to different recipes, water ratios, and nutritional values. Also, you’ve seen lots of different flavorings to add. For further learning, read this good Wikipedia article all about white rice.