How to cook brown rice

How to make brown rice - Tips for Cooking Brown rice

How to cook brown rice - How to make brown rice? Is making brown rice easy? Why use brown rice instead of white rice? Answers to all these questions are here.

White rice or brown rice?

Brown rice is supposed to be better for health as it contains more nutrients. White rice does not contain these nutrients or may contain them in smaller quantities.

White rice looks good so many people prefer that. Brown rice contains more fiber than white rice.

Below you will find instructions to cook steamed brown rice on the stove top in a pot.

Brown rice is available as short grain brown rice as well as long grain brown rice or basmati brown rice.

Long grain brown rice cooks faster than short grain brown rice. The water needed for cooking long grain rice is less than the short grain rice.

Long grain - basmati brown rice

Short grain brown rice

Steamed brown rice is easy to cook. You can cook it using a pressure cooker or a rice cooker or you can also cook it in a pot on a stove.

You may also make brown rice pulao, brown rice khichadi etc. Once you learn cooking plain steamed brown rice, you can make other variations of brown rice.

On this page you will find instructions for

Cook brown rice in a pot on the stove top
Cook brown rice in a pressure cooker directly
Cook brown rice in a pressure cooker separator/container

How to cook brown rice in a pot on the stove top

Soaking brown rice before cooking

Before you cook brown rice, you need to wash and soak it. The soaking time would depend on how soft you want your rice when it is cooked. Minimum 15 to 30 minutes soaking is necessary. You may also soak for 2-3 hours if you wish.

If you do not have time for soaking, you will need longer time for cooking. Soaking rice reduces cooking time.

I like rice to be soft, so I usually soak for more than one hour whenever there is time.

Amount of water to add for cooking brown rice

Generally the ratio for rice and water is 1:2. For one cup rice, you need 2 cups of water.

The amount of water to add to cook brown rice will depend on the time you soak rice as well as how soft you want your rice.

You need to add some extra water when you want softer rice.

For short grain rice, you will need about 2 cups of water for each cup of rice. The quantity of water will depend on the variety of rice and also on how old rice is.

New rice needs less water. Adding more water than necessary will make the rice mushy, too soft or like a paste.

Adding too little will not cook the rice properly. The rice is perfectly cooked when rice is cooked soft but each grain is separate.

If you are using long grain white basmati rice, we have a separate page with detailed instructions Here to cook basmati plain rice.

Ingredients for cooking brown rice on the stove top in a pot

Ingredients for cooking plain brown rice for 2-3 servings

Brown Rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups

Optional ingredients

Salt -1/4tsp
Ghee / Clarified butter - 1 or 2 tsps - makes rice very yummy
Lime juice - 1 tsp, makes rice white

brown basmati rice

Step by step instructions for plain steamed brown rice

Preparation:

Take rice in a plate and remove any impurities visible. Now a days you get cleaned rice so this step may not be necessary.
Take 1 cup rice in a bowl. Add water and wash rice 2-3 times till water runs clear .
Keep aside for 15 - 30 minutes. Soak longer, up to 3 hours if you want softer rice.

Instructions for Cooking Rice on stove top:

Keep a big pot(about 2 litre size) with 2 cups of water to boil.
When water starts boiling, add soaked rice.
Stir, reduce flame to medium low. Stir once in a while rice cooks.
Add salt. If you cover the pot, it may boil over so watch it. Or cover the pot in such a way that the steam can escape a little.
It will take about 15-20 minutes to cook rice. Add a little water if necessary.
When the rice is almost done, Cover it and switch the flame off.
The rice will continue cooking in it's steam for some time even after you switch off the flame.
Leave the rice covered for 10 minutes or till serving time.

Serve plain rice hot with rasam, sambar, lentil curry, dal, vegetable curry.

You may use this rice to make Lemon rice, Tomato Rice , tamarind rice, Vegetable biryani rice, Fried rice etc.

How to cook Brown rice in pressure cooker directly

Clean, wash and soak rice as per the instructions above.

Add rice to a pressure cooker along with water.
Keep pressure cooker on the stove with medium high flame.
Place weight and let pressure build up.
Cook for 3-4 whistles.
Switch off after that and let cooker cool naturally so that you can remove weight without the hissing sound. This may take 10-15 minutes after you switch off the flame.
Rice will be ready by this time.

How to cook Brown rice in pressure cooker separator

You can use this separator option if you are cooking other items, such as dals/lentils, vegetables along with rice in the pressure cooker. You can place each item in a separator and cook them at the same time in the pressure cooker.

Place the cleaned, washed, soaked rice along with water in a separator/container. Add other items to other containers.
Place pressure cooker on the stove on medium high flame.
Add 1 1/2 cup water to the bottom of pressure cooker.
Place a trivet and place the separator containers on the trivet.
Close cooker with a lid.
Place weight and let pressure build up.
Cook for 3-4 whistles.
Switch off after that and let cooker cool naturally so that you can remove weight without the hissing sound. This may take 10-15 minutes after you switch off the flame.
Rice will be ready by this time.

Tips and variations

Tips

Remember to add the water according to the type of rice, how old the rice is and what you are planning to use it.
Add water depending on what you are planning to make after making plain rice.
For curd rice, you need softer rice so you may add a little more water.
For Lemon rice, Tomato Rice , tamarind rice, Vegetable biryani rice, Fried rice etc, rice should not be cooked too soft, so add less water. If it is too soft will get mushy when you mix it with vegetables, lemon etc.
Basmati rice needs less water. It also breaks easily.
I usually cook rice in the pressure cooker. That saves time and fuel as I can cook the lentils and the vegetables too using separators.