Best Lunch Ideas: Brown Rice Recipes

Brown rice recipes are versatile and creative. You can use rice for pilafs, salad, and soups, and it's nutritious, offering lots of fiber and B vitamins. The B vitamins give you energy and support a calm and happy mood. Brown rice recipes are yummy food medicine.

You can find short grain, medium grain, long grain and brown basmati at a natural foods store. The short grain rice makes a sticky grain, and medium and long grain rice is fluffier. I prefer the long grain rice or basmati for pilafs and salads.

Make it digestible

Brown rice is chewy and the added fiber make take getting used to. Start with small amounts and chew well! Soaking your grain overnight will help with digestibility; the grain opens up and is softer.

If you find brown rice hard to digest, try a mix of brown and white rice. Use 1 cup water for every cup of white rice, and 2 cups of water for every cup of brown rice. you can cook them together for an hour. This creates a lighter rice that is better for some with sensitive digestion.

Whole foods Chef Rebecca Woods says that using a pressure cooker for rice increases digestibility by softening the bran. She recommends pressure cooking for 50 minutes to ensure a well cooked rice that is more digestible.

In the Kitchen

I cook my rice in a Le Creuset pot. It's best to cook rice with a heavy bottom pot like Le Creuset.

I also use a flame tamer to spread the heat. A flame tamer is a heat diffuser, a flat circle that fits under your pot on the stove. You can find them at good hardware stores. I use mine often.

Since the rice takes an hour to cook, I make extra for leftovers. I make a pot of rice on Sunday for dinner, then use it during the week for stir fry, salads, soups, even desert as rice pudding! The grain keeps about 3 days in the frig.

Here's some Brown Rice recipes:

Brown rice recipes: Basic brown rice

1 cup rice, soaked overnight

a little less than 2 cups pure water

pinch of sea salt or a 2 inch strip of kombu sea vegetable

Directions: Bring rice, salt and water to a boil in a heavy pot, then lower to simmer. cover the pot, put it on a flame tamer and let cook 50 to 60 minutes. Remove rice from pot and serve.

Brown rice recipes: Rice pilaf

saute rice in oil or butter and herbs and it becomes a pilaf.

1 cup basmati rice

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried marjoram

pinch sea salt

2 tbsp diced onion

2 tbsp fresh parsley

2 cups water

Directions: Put olive oil in a pan, add seeds, onion and rice. toast for a few minutes. Add water, salt and marjoram. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer and cover the pot. Cook for 50 to 60 minutes, until water is absorbed. Add fresh parsley and fluff.

These recipes use cooked rice:

Brown rice recipes: Rice Salad

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice

1 stalk celery, sliced diagonally

1 Tbsp finely minced red onion

1/2-1 avocado, chopped

Dressing :

1/2 tsp lemon juice, fresh

salt to taste

1/4 tsp cumin

1 Tbsp flax or olive oil

Directions: Combine salad ingredients in a bowl. Combine dressing ingredients. Mix dressing into salad. serve on a bed of lettuce

Brown rice recipes: Summer rice salad

3 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup diced carrots, lightly steamed

1/4 cup dill or basil, fresh

1 cup diced summer squash, lightly steamed

1 cup green beans, sliced thin, steamed

6 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

black olives, 6-8, optional

Dressing:

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tsp lemon juice

salt to taste

Directions: lightly steam diced carrots, squash and green beans in a steamer or in a saucepan with a small amount of water. Keep them crispy, just a little steam. Combine all salad ingredients in a bowl. Mix in dressing. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Brown rice recipes: Simple grain salad

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 red radishes, sliced

5 tbsp chopped cilantro (a handful)

1 clove garlic

6 almonds, sliced

Dressing:

1 tbsp flax oil

2 tsp rice vinegar

sea salt to taste

Directions: combine all and serve.

To create new recipes with rice, you can add in herbs, spice it up with peppers, or add olives, artichoke hearts, or sun dried tomatoes. Try grated dill pickles, grated carrots, or just about any low starch, crunchy vegetable. Make your dish colorful, seasonal and fresh.