The Secret to Making Perfect Rice (& Some Fun Memories!)

I’m sure if you’re like us, you’re eating more beans & rice these days. 😊 We have decided to try to eat some type of beans & rice meal each week or at least every 2 weeks to have a better rotation and find some recipes we really like. The girls love a cheesy lentil & rice recipe that we do probably once a month.

Tomorrow’s post is a recipe for a bean/rice/egg burrito meal (many different options so everyone can tailor it how they prefer), so today I wanted to start with how to make the perfect rice.

I honestly don’t even remember where I learned this, but it has never failed me.

The standard recipe for rice is:

• 2 Cups of water
• 1 Cup of rice

I also like to add:

• 1-2 Tbsp oil or butter
• 1 tsp of salt

The oil & salt just add a bit more flavor. It’s not necessarily needed depending on what you’re using the rice for, but I always add it just in case. 😉

Put all the ingredients in a pot, bring the mixture to a rapid boil, then turn it off, take it off the heat, and just let the rice steam. This is the hard part!!!! You have to just let it sit without taking off the lid!! It can take 20-30 minutes, so I always just start the rice early, because it keeps warm. This way it steams perfectly…no rice boiling over or burning or sticking or running out of water. Once you take off the lid, the rice is fluffy & perfect!!

You’re welcome. 👍😊

There are SO many options for rice – you can mix it in with hamburger to stretch it farther. Beans & rice with SO many flavor combinations, any number of toppings to put over rice, like pepper steak or stir fry. Fried rice.

A funny side note… I lived in Suriname, South America for 5 years, from when I was 10-15. It was a very poor country & the native people ate rice every day. One time I can remember going on a high school youth retreat to Brownsberg (I need to find some pictures to share, it was really incredible!! I will try to dig some out soon to share a glimpse. So many memories… including one that came to me today of slipping & sliding through a climb in a muddy, hilly terrain as a daughter asked me, “Did you know that mud is slippery?” “Why yes, Yes, I did!!) They served rice with something, but I didn’t care for the something they served it with (no idea what it was….probably something with meat & I’ve never been a huge meat eater). So I ate a huge bowl of rice with a lot of butter & salt (which is delicious, by the way). I remember a native woman coming up to me & being SO astonished that I would CHOOSE to eat plain rice when I had other options available. “Only the poor people ate rice plain, she said!!!” It has always stuck with me….we as a nation are so privileged & spoiled. We don’t even think about or consider it, we just eat & eat & eat with no consideration to how gluttonous we are.