Rice, it’s one of the oldest and is the most widespread food staple around the world that has been consumed for over 7,000 years. Cooking rice, however, can prove to be quite time consuming and easy to get wrong as anything as simple as not properly washing and rinsing the rice before cooking, or cooking the rice for too long, or not long enough. Thankfully modern technology has the resolution in the form of a rice cooker to ensure you get perfect fluffy rice every time at the press of a button. Rice cookers can be used for a lot more than just plain rice and can even be an integral part of many delicious recipes. Instant Pot is a good brand for multi cookers. With Instant Pot farro and other foods can be cooked very easily. Today we’re going to be looking at three of the best recipes that you can cook with a rice cooker, and some of them don’t even have rice!
Mushroom Risotto
The first dish we’re going to look at is risotto. While risotto can traditionally require a lot of stirring and precise timing to ensure a perfect al dente and a creamy consistency using a rice cooker can take away a lot of the stress and effort and allow you to enjoy a perfect risotto every time. This technique can be used with any type of risotto but for this Mushroom Risotto recipe inspired by The Spruce Eats make sure you’ve got the ingredients listed below:
- 1 litre mushroom stock, alt. Vegetable or chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup mushrooms, slices
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups risotto rice
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Set the rice cooker to ‘Regular’ or ‘Quick Cook’ too heat up for a few minutes. Spread the butter around the entire surface of the pot.
- Sauté the onion for a few minutes until the edges are translucent.
- Pour in the white wine and combine. Cook for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to evaporate.
- Add the rice and stir to coat the rice. Continue stirring occasionally until the rice is translucent at the edges.
- Add the mushrooms and sauté for a few minutes.
- Add the mushroom stock and stir to combine with the rice.
- Close the rice cooker and if possible set it to it’s porridge setting, if it doesn’t have such a setting simply set it to the regular setting and set the timer for 20 minutes
- Check the rice is al dente and a small amount of liquid is still there before stirring in the parmesan cheese and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.
Teriyaki Shrimp and Rice
The next recipe we’re going to be looking at is a super simple and easy Teriyaki Shrimp and Rice inspired by a recipe at BudgetBytes. This is a beautiful and quick dish that you can put together effortlessly to fill you up and hit that spot of seafood you’ve been craving. As always with a recipe as versatile as this feel free to add, remove or change it as you will but for this recipe of four servings make sure you’ve got all the ingredients below:
- 250g raw, thawed shrimp
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
- 1.5 cups rice
- 2 teaspoons garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon ginger paste
- 2 cups light fish stock
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Turn on the rice cooker to allow it to heat up, sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in butter until fragrant. Add the frozen peas and rice and stir to coat.
- Place the shrimp atop the rice and pour in the 2 cups of stock. Close the lid and set the cooker to its ‘white rice’ setting and let cook.
- Mix together the soy sauce and brown sugar. Let the rice rest for 5 minutes after cooking.
- Pour the soy mixture and fold. Salt and pepper to taste.
Peanut Butter and Oatmeal
The final recipe we’re looking at today isn’t even rice, or traditionally for dinner and is certainly the most versatile recipe we’re going to be looking at today. For this recipe I encourage you to mix and match and have fun with it. Play with it as much as you like. We’re going to be making oatmeal, which may sound potentially boring or bland but you can make it taste good; it’s the springboard from which you can add and mix together a myriad of flavours for a wonderfully filling and delicious meal that you can shape as you like. If you want somewhere to start the list of ingredients below are what you need:
- 3/4 cup milk, alt. Plant based milk
- 3/4 teaspoons chia seeds
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon agave syrup, alt. Brown sugar, sweeter
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon black strap molasses
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 medjool dates, optional
- 1 banana, optional
- 4 tablespoons granola, optional
- Add all of the ingredients, except for the fruit, to the rice cooker and mix to combine.
- Cook on the porridge setting, if available, and cook. Leave it for a few minutes to cool down.
- Top with sliced fruit, granola, whatever you wish.
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