Rice: a friendly dish when you’re in a hurry

Rice has been in the top three of the most popular foods worldwide. Thus every person in the world includes rice at least once in their daily meals, and some eat it three times a day. Its adaptability for growing almost everywhere and affordability has made it the preferred food for most homes.

Rice preference relies principally on its mild flavor, excellent for pairing with any ingredient resulting in delicious dishes. Additionally, the most relevant feature is its easy and quick way of cooking. This grain cooks in less than 30 minutes either by steaming, boiling or baking. But, if you are in a hurry and are looking for faster methods, you can even cook it in the microwave, rice cooker, and instant pots.

The time you have to prepare your meals defines the cooking method you will surely choose. Whatever technique you decide to use, all preparations with rice will be ready very fast and effortlessly.

How to cook rice faster?

The traditional cooking methods can take between 15 to 30 minutes. By steaming, rice can be perfectly fluffy in about 25 minutes. By boiling, rice cooks for 15 minutes. Baking rice is a technique that takes more time, since rice will need about 30 minutes or more to be tender.

This cooking time refers to simple rice dishes with few ingredients, for example, white rice as a side dish, brown rice, or lime rice. For more complicated recipes cooking time depends on the other ingredients.

Maybe you think that 15-30 minutes is still so much time. However, there are ways of preparing rice in shorter periods. Nowadays, new cooking appliances can reduce the cooking time by half, or even less.

In a microwave, rice can be cooked in 15 minutes. Rice cookers take 10 minutes for an evenly cooked rice dish. Instant pot is not far behind with a cooking time of 10 minutes.

If you feel you’ve already found the solution for preparing rice in a faster way, you should know there is a secret for doing it even faster: instant rice.

Instant rice is a type of rice that has undergone a precooking and dehydration process. That helps to reduce cooking time by putting it with some hot water in the microwave or on the stove.

Cooking instant rice in either of these ways will take you only 2 minutes. Here is your perfect solution for cooking rice rapidly when you are in a hurry.

Quick rice recipes

Using instant rice doesn’t change the taste or texture of any rice preparation. This type of rice tastes the same, has the fluffy texture you need, and is cooked perfectly each time. It can be used as a substitute for all rice preparations that you need to do in a short time.

There are countless recipes for making delightful rice preparations with the instant version. To not get confused, start by cooking simple white rice. Then, you can level up and learn how to make fried rice with egg or Cajun rice.

Instant white rice on the stove

Servings: 2 Prep time: 2 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of instant rice.
• 1 cup of water.
• Salt to taste.

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan, pour water and salt.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Add instant rice and cover the saucepan.
4. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Let it stand.
6. Serve.

This is the simplest rice recipe. For having rice with extra flavors, you can cook it with vegetable or chicken broth. You can also add flavors with spices or herbs: garlic, cayenne, paprika, thyme, chili, among others. They must be added together with the water or broth.

Cajun rice

Servings: 4 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1⁄2 cups of instant rice.
• 1 chopped onion.
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
• 1 can of chicken broth.
• 1 sliced green pepper.
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons of chili powder.
• 1⁄2 teaspoon of dried thyme leaves.
• 1⁄4 teaspoon of paprika.
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground red pepper.
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. In a skillet, add vegetable oil and add onion
2. Cook at medium heat until it is tender.
3. Pour chicken broth, green pepper, chili powder, thyme leaves, paprika, ground red pepper, and salt.
4. Stir very well.
5. Bring the preparation to a boil.
6. Once it is boiling, add rice and mix it all.
7. Remove from the heat, cover, and let it stand for 5 minutes.
8. Serve.