Brown Rice

Colorful and luscious, this Thai restaurant classic can easily be made at home.

This is an easy dish to make, and the results are splendid. Using quick-cooking rice, you can have a magnificent one-dish meal in about thirty minutes, whether for a busy weeknight or a leisurely weekend meal.

A classic Spanish dish, this is a great choice when you want something easy and hearty. Briny olives perk up the mellow flavor of brown rice and beans.

In the classic Thai dish, white rice is combined with white potatoes. Though it sounds rather redundant, the seasonings and embellishments make it delectable nonetheless. I took the general idea of this recipe and revved it up to include the two main ingredients’ more nourishing counterparts—brown rice and sweet potatoes. This may still sound like an odd combination, but honestly, it works very well. Like any dish using brown rice, this will take about forty minutes, but hands-on time is limited, allowing you to prepare any accompaniments at a leisurely pace.

This bountiful rice dish offers a variety of flavors and textures. I especially like the burst of sweetness provided by tiny orange sections.

Once veg burger and veg ball are in the sausage lexicon, why not include another offbeat member? In the spirit of having fun stepping outside the box, and for the love of my vegetarian son, Jenan, here is a cabbage leaf–wrapped brown rice, walnut, and dandelion green mix that simulates sausage without the meat. Dandelion greens are the surprise. No matter how young and tender you pick them, they retain a decidedly bitter pucker. But tucked into the brown rice, they cease to affront and instead demur to lending their healthful, herbal kick to the dish. The made-on-the-spur-of-the-moment tomato-caper sauce adds the acid element that brings it all together.

Avocado is right at home in this Asian-style one-bowl supper of shrimp, snow peas, and brown rice. Serve the citrusy sauce on the side, or drizzle a little over each portion.

THIS RECIPE WAS INSPIRED BY DOLMADES, the classic Greek appetizer. Mustard greens, a deliciously bitter leaf, stand in for grape leaves, and the earthiness of celery root and the bite of sheep’s-milk cheese complete this healthy, hearty dish that your vegetarian—and nonvegetarian—friends will love. It’s important to use fresh herbs instead of dried in this recipe because these ingredients aren’t cooked and dried herbs wouldn’t be fully reconstituted.

KALE SEEMS TO INTIMIDATE PEOPLE. Maybe it’s the large dark green leaves and the tough thick stalks that spill over the grocery bins. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame. Leafy kale is one of the most nutritious vegetables around and extremely versatile. This recipe takes a detour from the classic gratin: Brown rice replaces potatoes, and the earthiness of the kale creates a healthy, hearty side dish. You can use any variety of kale in this dish, but my favorite is the dinosaur variety for its full flavor.

THIS HEALTHY SALAD, made with crunchy cabbage, sweet carrot, juicy chicken, and fresh cilantro, gets a bite from the lime jalapeño dressing.

SMART SUBSTITUTION Unlike white rice, brown rice retains the nutritious bran and germ covering the grain; it has three times the amount of fiber and a host of essential nutrients. Adding brown rice and other whole grains to salads makes them more filling without significantly increasing fat and calories.

GOOD TO KNOW Even though the chicken thighs are seared with the skin on, the extra fat is poured off from the pot before the other ingredients are added. Swapping brown rice for white adds a better dose of fiber and nutrients.

PAT Grilled corn is good enough all by itself. Here we feature it in a light, slightly smoky salad with rice, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and kidney beans. It’s an awesome combination, but once you add in the feta cheese, “Girl, you did that!” That’s what Gina’s mom always says. We used white rice, but brown will work just as well and give it an earthy, nutty flavor.

I’m a longtime fan of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, cookbook authors who produce glorious books with a journalistic approach to food writing. Their stories and stunning photographs illuminate the culture behind the food of such places as Southeast Asia and lesser-known parts of China. They’re also great fun to talk to, and when I interviewed them about their ways with fried rice (which they often make for themselves at home when one or the other is traveling), they insisted that for my own eating pleasure I make sure to always have nam pla prik in my refrigerator. This Thai condiment is simply fish sauce and chiles, which sounds like an almost lethally pungent combination, but when you make it, something magical happens. Each ingredient tames the other one, an effect that increases the longer the sauce sits in the refrigerator. This recipe is designed to use leftover rice, such as the stuff that comes in spades with Chinese takeout orders. Fresh rice doesn’t work as well because it sticks. If you don’t have a wok, you can use a nonstick skillet for this recipe, but it will take longer and won’t be as much fun.

One of my college hangouts was a scruffy Austin restaurant called Les Amis, which my friends and I called “Lazy Me,” in honor of the decidedly unhelpful service. The food was dependable even if the waitstaff wasn’t, and a standby for me was a simple bowl of black beans, rice, and cheese, priced so even students without trust funds could afford it. Later, I learned that the combination of beans and rice is one of the most nutritionally complete vegetarian meals possible. While beans are one of the vegetables that takes better to canning than others, if you make a pot of your own from scratch (page 47), the taste and texture are incomparable. When Les Amis finally closed, torn down to make room for a new Starbucks, I missed not just the peasant’s bowl, but those inattentive waitresses, too.

In many parts of the world, breakfast is a savory affair. Throughout Asia, hearty congee is a favorite morning dish, eaten with condiments ranging from stir-fried pork to fried garlic. This version gets a citrus zing from lemongrass (shown below) and ginger. Normally made with white rice, the grain most widely available in Asia, congee can be made using any whole grain. Soaking the rice overnight cuts the cooking time in half.

This is a simple, yet totally memorable, way to serve rice pudding as a special dessert. The coconut cream and tropical fruits make a perfect ending to a Latin- or Island-themed menu. You can find sweet brown rice at natural food stores.