Brown Rice Medley in a Rice Cooker

Recently, I’ve noticed more and more people are interested in rice. Maybe it’s the new trend because so many people are becoming gluten intolerant. Rice is so versatile that I am really taking another look at this staple ingredient. In general, our family tends to stick to basic white rice. But, recently I’ve been trying to get out of my comfort zone and  experimented with various other grains in my rice cooker.

Some of the more sophisticated rice cookers have a special mode for brown rice but the standard versions don’t. I decided to try to see how a brown rice medley cooked in my appliance.

At Costco I found an organic Harvest Medley, which has blend of four rices: brown rice, wild rice, sweet brown rice, and heirloom red rice.

First, I followed the basic cooking method on the jar and used 1 cup rice to 2 1/2 cups chicken stock and a tablespoon of olive oil and cooked the rice in a pot over the stove. The flavor was good, but the texture was too soft and mushy to my liking. I tried again using just 2 cups of chicken stock, but still a little too wet.

Next, I used my rice cooker to see if I could get better results. Since I knew 2 1/2 cups of stock was too much last time, I tried 2 U.S. cups of chicken stock, with one cup of rice and no oil. The result was very good; fluffy and perfectly cook. To cut down on sodium intake, I tried using plain water instead of stock. Obviously, there is less flavor, but when combining rice with other dishes, it works just fine.

Why not try a blend of different varieties of rice in your rice cooker? I found the best ratio to be 1 cup of brown rice to 2 cups of liquid. It’s a simple way to get your family to eat a healthier diet and a good change from the usual white rice.