How to Cook Brown Rice

One thing that you should note about brown rice is that it has a shorter shelf life than white rice because of naturally occurring oils that can go rancid. You can put your brown rice in airtight containers and store it in the freezer if you like. If you notice an odor that doesn't seem right coming from your uncooked brown rice, put it in the compost bin.

The following is a foolproof method for cooking brown rice, courtesy of Annette Annechild.

Either:

2-1/3 cups of rice to 4 cups of water

Or 3 -1/2 cups of rice to 6 cups of water

Rinse the uncooked rice three times and drain well. Put the water on to boil in a separate saucepan. While waiting for the water to come to a boil, put two tablespoons of oil in the bottom of a heavy, tight-lidded sauce pan, then sauté the well-drained rice in the oil while you wait for the water to boil. Do this over fairly high heat. It has to be stirred constantly, otherwise it will scorch. This process coats the rice with the oil and evaporates the water from rinsing. The rice will begin to smell very nutty after a minute or two.

When the water in the other pan has come to a vigorous boil, pour it over the rice in the saucepan. It is very important at this point not to stir the rice anymore, not even once. Let it come back up to a vigorous boil, put the lid on, turn it down as low as you can and cook for 45 minutes. During this time, do not lift the lid or do anything else to it. When 45 minutes is up, turn off the heat and let the rice sit undisturbed for at least 15-20 minutes before serving.

This recipe is excellent, and you will find that you have very tasty and healthy rice if you follow these directions. Using brown rice is a great idea. It's easy to cook, works well in any rice recipe, and adds a dimension of health and flavor that you cannot get with white rice.

If cooking brown rice is just too much work for you, but you still want the health benefits, you might want to consider stabilized rice bran instead. It has almost all the nutrients of brown rice, but it has a longer shelf life and requires no preparation.