Rice & Grains
2019 recipes found
Amaranth Porridge
Many years ago, after I decided to stop eating meat (I am not a strict vegetarian now, though that’s the way I usually eat), I walked down the street to look over whole grains at my local health food store in Austin, Tex. There wasn’t much of a selection; still, it was all new to me, and I bought some of the grains sold in bulk bins: brown rice, millet, kasha and wheat berries.
Kasha With Squash and Pomegranate
This salad works equally well with kasha or freekeh, both of which have a nutty-earthy flavor that serves as a great backdrop for sweet roasted butternut squash and sweet-tart, crunchy pomegranate seeds. Lately I have gotten into the habit of roasting diced butternut squash to keep on hand in the refrigerator for a few days; I usually don’t know in advance what I am going to use it for; then one night it finds its way into a salad like this one, the next night into a risotto, and so on until it is time to roast up another one. Four cups diced squash looks like a lot, but it reduces down to about 1 1/2 cups when you roast it, so you will use it up quickly (I use all of it, for example, in this salad).
Farro and Swiss Chard Salad With Grapefruit Vinaigrette
A farmer at my market recently was selling huge, sturdy bunches of Swiss chard, the kind I used to cook with in France, with wide ribs and heavy leaves. One bunch weighed almost 2 pounds; the leaves alone, off the stems, weighed in at about 13 ounces. I used the greens for more than one dish, including this substantial salad, to which I also added diced sautéed chard ribs.
Japanese-Style Rice Salad
Whether it’s tender and tasty short-grain, astonishingly fragrant basmati or superchewy red, brown and black varieties, rice is one salad ingredient that does not deteriorate when dressed. It absorbs and thrives on the addition of liquids.
Dijon Rice With Broccoli
The vegan chef Lindsay S. Nixon is giving Well readers a sneak peek at her new cookbook, “Everyday Happy Herbivore: Over 175 Quick-and-Easy Fat-Free and Low-Fat Vegan Recipes." Dijon mustard and broccoli complement each other beautifully and come together to jazz up a side of rice. Since all Dijon mustards and hot sauces are a little different, this recipe is very much “to taste.”
Chicken and Rice Soup With Ginger and Turmeric
Many countries have some form of creamy rice porridge in their culinary canon, such as Chinese congee, Filipino lugaw or arroz caldo and Korean juk, to name just a few. Seasonings vary, but all call for simmering a little bit of rice with a lot of liquid until the grains tenderize and break down to create a deeply comforting soup. Ideal for those harboring colds or seeking comfort, this brothy chicken-and-rice soup begins with poaching an entire chicken, which takes time, but guarantees tender meat. The rendered fat creates a rich, flavorful broth, while coriander and turmeric add earthy notes. Fresh cilantro, red chile and ginger brighten the dish.
Indian-Style Rice Salad
In most cases, rice salads can be dressed not only minutes but hours in advance, making them ideal for entertaining or for just cooking ahead. Cook the rice a bit in advance, and dress it before it gets too cold. (While leftover rice — even from Chinese takeout restaurants — is close to ideal for fried rice, it doesn’t work nearly as well as fresh-cooked rice for salads.)
Big Salad With Grains
There's no true recipe for a big salad, but for this robust green meal, you will want to keep a few rules in mind. Skip the soft lettuces, which tend to get squashed in a big salad, and start with sturdier greens, like kale or escarole. Add fruits and vegetables, a protein, like a hard-boiled egg, and a starch or two. You want a total of six to eight ingredients, before toppings. Too few, and it could get boring; too many, and the bowl gets crowded and confusing. Finish it off with a substantial dressing, like avocado, yogurt or tahini, and add a couple of toppings, like chives or chopped nuts. Serve with a side of whole-grain bread for a filling and healthy meal.
Risotto With Sausage and Parsley
This is a very simple if slightly stove-intensive dinner, a two-pot meal that comes together serially to achieve a hearty whole. I use sweet Italian sausage most of the time, but the hot varieties work as well, and always the richest chicken stock available — sometimes adding bouillon to my homemade stock for the extra oomph it provides. The key is stirring, stirring, stirring the rice as you add the stock, taking care to incorporate each ladleful entirely into the rice before adding more. Taste often at the end, and adjust the seasoning as you like, but do not stint on either the lemon juice or the parsley, as their brightness acts as a terrific foil to the rich, unctuous quality of the rice.
Farro With Salmon, Cucumber, Radicchio and Dill
Salmon steams right over toasty farro, saving you from having to wash an extra pan. The silky fish and chewy grains get a refreshing lemony salad of cucumbers and radicchio on top, which is prepared while the farro cooks. Each bite goes from crunchy cool to warm and comforting, though the salad is also good room temperature or cold. If you don't like the bitter edge of radicchio, try thinly sliced endive or fennel instead. For a salty, creamy hit of flavor, sprinkle the top of the salad with crumbled feta.
Red-Cooked Beef Short Ribs
Traditional red-cooked dishes — they take their name from the mahogany color the sauce imparts to the meat — are simple braises of rice wine, light and dark soy sauces, with some sugar and aromatics. The version Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin and Quealy Watson serve at Best Quality Daughter, their restaurant in San Antonio, turbocharges that formula. Dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorns bring fire and tingle, and star anise and cinnamon provide warmth. There’s a whisper of orange, a bite of ginger. Tomato paste and doubanjiang, a fermented chile bean paste, offer depth. Do take the time to use some of the braising liquid to serve as the base for the finishing glaze, thick and glossy as demi-glace. It’s worth it.
Green Curry Salmon With Coconut Rice
Sweet coconut milk tempers the fiery pungency of Thai green curry paste in this easy one-pot salmon and rice meal. Fresh scallions and cilantro add herbal freshness, while chopped baby spinach makes the whole thing even greener. Note that different brands of rice absorb different amounts of water, so don’t be afraid to add more water as needed.
Roasted Salmon With Miso Rice and Ginger-Scallion Vinaigrette
This simple weeknight meal makes great use of pantry staples to create complex flavors with minimal work. Miso is often used to flavor soups or sauces, and here, it is added to raw rice before cooking, which results in a delightfully sticky, savory steamed rice. Fragrant and nutty basmati is called for, but any long-grain rice will work. Shredded cabbage brings freshness and crunch to the finished dish, but use whatever crispy vegetable you have on hand: shredded brussels sprouts, carrots, snap peas, radishes and iceberg lettuce are all great options. For a heftier meal, add some canned chickpeas, white beans or black beans. To finish, the vibrant tang of the bright ginger-scallion vinaigrette balances the richness of the roasted salmon.
Velvet Fish With Mushrooms
Here’s a recipe that takes its flavor inspiration from a dish served at Nancy Xiao’s restaurant China Xiang, in the theater district of Manhattan: a sweet-salty rice wine sauce over velveted fish. Its preparation owes much to the teachings of the classic 1969 cookbook “Chinese Gastronomy,” by Tsuifeng Lin and Hsiang Ju Lin, and the advice of the chef Jonathan Wu. It is what the Lins call “two-passes” cooking, with the fish cooked twice, first to velvet it, then to cover it with sauce. (It’s important, Wu notes, not to think of it as stir-frying with high heat but as gentle, careful cooking that does not break up the fish.) It’s great with flounder as at China Xiang, but also with tilapia, with halibut, with whatever firm-fleshed white fish you can find at the market. You can substitute firm tofu in place of the fish, or go half and half. It’s a dish to fall in love with, to make your own.
Salmon Burgers
For this recipe, you’ll want to grind part of the salmon in a food processor: It’ll bind the rest, which can be coarsely chopped to retain moisture during cooking. Some bread crumbs keep the burger from becoming as densely packed as (bad) meatloaf. This approach, along with a few simple seasonings, produces delicious burgers in not much more time than it takes to make one from ground chuck. The only real trick is to avoid overcooking. Whether you sauté, broil or grill this burger, it's best when the center remains the color of … salmon. Two or three minutes a side usually does the trick.
Gochugaru Salmon With Crispy Rice
Gochugaru, a mild, fragrant red-pepper powder, bedazzles this quick salmon dinner. As a key ingredient in Korean home cooking, gochugaru proves that some chiles provide not only heat but fruity sweetness as well. Here, that’s especially true once it’s bloomed in maple syrup, vinegar and butter. If you like shiny things, you may find great pleasure in watching this pan sauce transform into a mirrored, crimson glaze. Try to get long center-cut salmon fillets for uniform thickness and even cooking. Their crispy skin tastes wonderful with white rice, which toasts in the rendered salmon fat. To balance the richness of the fish, serve it with fresh, crunchy things, like cucumbers or pickles, or a big green salad.
Whole-Grain Pancakes
Using a combination of different grains, these hearty pancakes have a deeper, more interesting flavor, along with more fiber and nutrients, than those made from only white flour. If you want to add fruit, like blueberries or sliced peaches, or chocolate chips, sprinkle them on top of the pancakes just before flipping. Serve these straight out of the pan; pancakes don’t like to wait.
Fish Milanese
This fast weeknight dinner features quick-cooking flounder prepared alla Milanese, the style of breading and frying meat cutlets. The fillets are lightly breaded and pan-fried until golden and crisp on the outside and tender in the middle. A lemony, brown-butter pan sauce with capers comes together quickly to add a tangy brininess to the dish. A bit of avocado on the side adds creaminess that balances the crisp fish and peppery arugula. Any leftover fish makes for terrific sandwiches the next day, stacked with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo.
Earlonne’s Chicken and Brown Rice
Layered with savory, satisfying flavors, this one-pan recipe was inspired by a dish Earlonne Woods regularly prepared for himself while incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. Mr. Woods, a co-host of the popular Ear Hustle podcast, generally relied on kitchen connections to secure a raw chicken hindquarter. He’d boil it in a hot pot with whatever seasonings he had available, then use the resulting broth to rehydrate some instant brown rice. Offered as a cooking lesson to Mr. Woods, who is now an amateur home cook, this version instead relies on chicken legs browned in butter, a vibrant mix of spices and aromatics, and rich, homemade broth to pack in flavor. And just as the dish did when Mr. Woods served it, it may prompt your diner to compliment the meal: “You put your foot in it!”
Fish Larb
Larb, a boldly flavored Thai dish, often combines ground chicken, ground pork or other ground meat with dried chile, scallions, shallots, fish sauce, lime, fresh herbs and nutty toasted rice, which you can make yourself or find at Asian markets. The dish also works with crumbled tofu, mushrooms, cauliflower or fish. In this quick-cooking fish version, fish fillets are pan-seared until cooked through, then broken into bite-sized pieces and tossed with the rest of the ingredients. Serve with sticky rice, small wedges of salted green cabbage, cucumber spears or lettuce leaves.
Quinoa Pancakes
The addition of cooked quinoa to my regular buttermilk pancake batter results in a thick, moist pancake that’s hefty but not heavy.
Citrus Rice Salad With Parmesan
In all of American cooking there is probably no term less meaningful than “salad.” I’m racking my brain for a way to narrow the definition, but the best I can do is a dictionary-like “mixture of food, usually cold or at room temperature, with some kind of dressing.” That’s not saying much, but it opens a world of opportunities, especially when the base ingredient is rice, which offers a far wider variety of flavors and textures than any other grain.
Spiced Irish Oatmeal With Cream and Crunchy Sugar
A shower of heavy cream and plenty of caramelized Demerara sugar may make these Irish oats seem more like dessert than something you’d serve first thing in the morning, but that’s all the more reason to bake them up for a special occasion breakfast or brunch. Cardamom and cinnamon give them an especially earthy, perfumed aroma, and toasting the oats in butter before baking them lends nuttiness and depth. They’re also extremely easy, and you can assemble the dish the night before, then bake them in the morning. Just add about 10 minutes to the baking time if you’re starting them cold from the fridge.
Cornmeal Waffles With Smoked Salmon
A touch of fine cornmeal in the batter gives these waffles a delicious crispness. For a savory approach, they are embellished with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and caviar, perfect for a celebratory soiree, midnight supper or brunch. Serve a whole waffle or cut in quarters for appetizers. If you don’t have a waffle iron, the batter can also be used to make pancakes or blini. Of course, if preferred, serve these corn-perfumed waffles with sweet toppings instead.