"Cabbage soup and porridge - our food!" That's what the ancestors said - and they understood a lot about healthy eating. Yes, maybe porridge in itself is like a meal and rustic, but it energizes and gives a lot of strength. That's why cereals are recommended for breakfast. Although rice is not particularly rich in vitamins (except B, PP and E), it contains proteins that are similar in composition to animal proteins, complex carbohydrates that provide a long-term flow of energy, and minerals - potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron, phosphorus necessary for the coordinated work of the body. Rice porridge is indispensable in the diet, the diet of vegetarians and people who for certain reasons are not allowed to eat meat.
Rice porridge - general principles and methods of preparation
Unfortunately, in our time, convenience foods and fast foods, chips, cereals and food concentrates, used for breakfast, pushed natural porridge far into the background. But in vain. After all, all the cereals, and in particular rice, are incredibly tasty, and most importantly useful, you just need to cook them correctly. Rice porridge can be boiled in water, vegetable, meat broths or milk. Raisins, apples, nuts, pumpkin are added to sweet rice porridges, and unsweetened cooked with vegetables or meat. And, of course, rice porridge must be flavored with a generous piece of butter. It’s not for nothing that we hear from childhood - “you won’t spoil the porridge with butter."
Rice is an excellent absorbent, i.e. It has the ability to absorb various harmful substances, toxins and remove them from the blood and body. Rice porridge will help with a hangover syndrome, as well as remove excess salts from the joints. In this case, fresh liquid porridge is cooked without oil and salt, from grains soaked in water.
Rice porridge - preparation of products
There are many varieties of rice. They differ in taste, appearance and purpose. One variety is more suitable for sushi, the other for pilaf. To cook the porridge, it is recommended to take round rice - it is more viscous and sticky, and is the best suited for porridge. It must be washed and boiled for several minutes in water. Then the liquid is drained, rice is poured with milk and boiled to the desired viscosity. If the cereal is boiled only in milk, it will boil for a long time, the milk will boil away, and rice will lose most of the nutrients.
Rice porridge - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Rice porridge with milk
It’s not difficult to make such porridge, probably this is one of the simplest recipes. It turns out she is gentle, light, almost airy. For breakfast, adults and children will eat it with pleasure. The cooking process takes about thirty minutes.
Ingredients: 3-4 tbsp. milk, a glass of rice, to taste - sugar, butter and salt.
Cooking method
Pour washed rice into boiling water (1.5-2 L), cook for 8 minutes. Drain water through a colander, rinse rice under running water from a tap.
Boil milk in a saucepan, add a little salt, put sugar to taste, add rice. Cook, stirring, until thickened. Add a piece of butter to the bowl of porridge.
Recipe 2: Rice Porridge with Pumpkin
This porridge is a favorite among many gourmets. It is tasty, sweet and sunny. It is especially useful to eat it in the winter months to get not only a portion of vitamins and minerals, but also a charge of good mood. After all, the orange color of the pumpkin is very colorful and reminds of summer. For porridge, it is better to choose pumpkin muscat varieties, with brightly colored pulp. But this is not necessary, you can take a pale pumpkin - it will not affect the taste and usefulness, just the color will not be so saturated. The ingredients in the recipe do not have strict quantitative restrictions, you can put the products on the eye, or at your discretion. Someone will like porridge more thick or liquid, and someone will want to add more pumpkins. Therefore, you can depart from the indicated proportions in the recipe.
Ingredients: 250-300g of rice, 300g of pumpkin, 1.5 l of milk, to taste - sugar, butter, vanilla sugar and cinnamon.
Cooking method
Pour rice into boiling water and cook for seven to eight minutes. Drain the water by discarding the rice in a colander (sieve).
Cut the pumpkin into cubes or small slices and pour milk so that its liquid covers a couple of centimeters (one phalanx of the finger), add a pinch of salt. Light a fire, bring to a boil and boil for 5-7 minutes. Put rice with sugar on the pumpkin and cook until it is as thick and consistent as you like. If the porridge in the pan is very thickened, you can dilute it with hot milk. At the end of cooking, put vanilla sugar, butter and cinnamon. If the family is not all spices lovers, then it is better to add them not to the pan, but individually to the plate.
Recipe 3: Rice Porridge with Dried Fruits
Well, for anyone such a porridge is for the sweet tooth. For some reason, most of them are found among children and men. Porridge is very tasty and nutritious. The recipe will indicate several types of dried fruits. Based on your preferences, some can be excluded or replaced with others, for example, dates or figs. Dried fruits are sweet on their own, so porridge is cooked without adding sugar. Choose nuts at your discretion, for example, you can take walnuts or hazel. They must be freed from the shell and chopped with a knife or chopped with a blender.
Ingredients: a glass of rice, a handful of raisins, prunes and dried apricots (about 50 g each), 100 g butter, a third glass nuts, a tablespoon of honey, salt.
Cooking method
Boil rice - take 1 part of water for 1 part of rice. Pour it into boiled water and cook for 10 minutes. Then, with the lid closed, let it sweat as much again. Rice should turn out friable. In the water, when cooking rice, you can add one or two tablespoons of butter.
Wash dried fruits thoroughly, cut large fruits into pieces of arbitrary size and shape and add to the butter melted in a saucepan. Keep on low heat until soft, then put honey, pour two cups of boiling water and boil for about ten minutes. Arrange rice on plates and pour sweet gravy with dried fruits.
It can be done a little differently. After the dried fruits are boiled, add rice to them and boil for several minutes.
Sprinkle the cooked porridge with nuts.
Recipe 4: Rice Porridge with Vegetables
This recipe will primarily appeal to people who follow a healthy diet, diet, vegetarians and fasting. The rest will also be delighted with such porridge - both to taste and appearance. Bright spots of carrots and green peas look very contrasting and beautiful on a white background of rice. If it’s not the season now, fresh green peas can be replaced with frozen peas.
Ingredients: 1 glass of rice and green peas, 2 onions, 1 carrot, a little vegetable oil (30 g-2 tbsp), salt to taste, spices.
Cooking method
Steam washed rice, i.e. pour boiling water, and let stand for 15 minutes. Let the peas, chopped carrots and onions (i.e. add a little water to the pan to vegetables and oil and close the lid). With this method of heat treatment of products, they retain more nutrients.
In a pan with a thick bottom or a stewpan, put steamed vegetables, top steamed rice and pour boiling water (the ratio of rice to water is 1: 2). Add spices as desired and salt. Simmer over low heat until rice absorbs all the moisture.
Rice porridge - useful tips from experienced chefs
To cook a delicious porridge from rice, there is a little secret that lies in the preparation of cereals. Firstly, rice must first be sorted to get rid of garbage and spoiled grains. And secondly, it needs to be washed properly. First, to remove starch from the surface of rice, warm water, and then the grains are washed with hot water. This way fat dissolves better, which is formed on the cereal during storage.
