How to select brown rice
Brown rice is the most eaten product in the world. It is easy to cook and contains both fiber and vitamins.
- Always choose organic brown rice. The health benefits of rice are astounding. Organics tend to contain more nutrients and fewer pesticides (or even poisons like arsenic), and help your brown rice recipes just taste better!
- Brown rice can be found in most grocery stores - it's a very easily available grain. Most natural foods stores carry brown rice in bulk. So buy a little more than you need and store the rest in the fridge or freezer. This way it will stay fresh and you'll have some on hand for any brown rice recipe emergencies!
- Different varieties of brown rice are available for different brown rice recipes, including short grain, medium grain, and long grain. So which rice should you use? Well, it depends on your vision for the recipe you'd like to create!
- Short grain brown rice tends to be starchier (since it is smaller), so cooking it will produce stickier rice. Therefore, it is perfect for making soups or other dishes in which the starch could act as a thickener.
- Medium and long grains, when cooked, are less sticky owing to their lower starch content. They are, thus, perfect for rice dishes like stir-fries where you don't want your rice sticking together.
- Basmati Rice comes in both brown and white. And just as with other types of rice, the white is nearly devoid of any nutrients. So if you're looking for nutritious basmati rice, then brown is the way to go!
- Brown basmati is a longer grain than even long - grain brown rice, and is the preferred rice used in Indian dishes. It has a low starch content, and therefore cooks up beautifully, with grains which remain nicely separated.
- Nutrition-wise, the different types of brown rice are very similar.
