Ideas on how to make rice less boring ...

[firecat88]

Peanut butter rice. Half-cup of rice, one hearty spoonful of peanut butter (or your nut butter of choice), and whatever else you want to add. I like either honey, cinnamon, or chocolate chips. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, enjoy.

[Luna Baby]

We eat white rice for breakfast sometimes. White rice, a bit of butter and add brown sugar. Mix well and enjoy!

[dalesys]

We eat white rice for breakfast sometimes. White rice, a bit of butter and add brown sugar. Mix well and enjoy!

Cinnamon-a-mon-a-nom!

[the lawsmeister]

What about a kedgeree?
essentially just rice, hard boiled egg that's been cut up, flaked fish (a tin of tuna will do) and some chopped parsley.
very tasty

[Food Lady]

Rice pudding, but you really need short-grain for that, like arborio.

[Teefies2]

White rice with cooked bacon, for breakfast. Had this when I frequented youth hostels in Europe. Yum!

[dawnfire]

how about congee? here's a basic recipie http://chinesefood.about.com/od/breakfast/r/congee.htm

or a chicken version (jook) http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen...s/s3063499.htm

the great thing it freezes well and is wonderful when you're ill.

[KhirasHY]

I generally use white rice for any curry or stir fry night in our house...there are hundreds of good curry recipes out there (and they are pretty easy and healthy for the most part) to choose from.

[aurelemsrealm]

My wife found a recipe for Polynesian meatballs that we like pretty well. She always fixes a bed of instant rice to stretch them a little farther. They are good, but I find the blandness of the rice to be boring.

So, I had the idea of adding salsa to the rice. The first time I tried mixing salsa into the rice, it was just some store bought salsa we had on hand at the time. Then, my wife found a recipe for pineapple salsa, so we tried it. We found that to be to our liking as a side with the Polynesian meatballs. So, instead of doing the meatballs on a bed of rice, I now fix my plate half meatballs and half pineapple salsa rice.

[EricKei]

Try making Dirty Rice or Jambalaya.

Seconded ^_^

Here's my Granny's version of the former, which she called "Fa"

- Roughly equal portions cooked white rice (preferably short-grain, I have found it works better if the rice is a little sticky), ground pork, and ground beef/chuck.
- Trinity (roughly equal portions celery, onion, and bell pepper, all chopped up very small -- this is Cajun style. If you prefer Creole style, use tomatoes rather than celery)
- Green onions (shallots), if desired, chopped up very small
- Minced garlic to taste
- Butter for cooking

Butter in pan, lightly brown the Trinity (& onions), add garlic at the last second, just before adding pork and beef (garlic browns/burns more easily than the others). Brown the meat, mixing thoroughly; you can always cook the meats separately and then combine later, just use half of the Trinity for each. When it's ready, drain off all of the grease, and mix in the rice. Serve hot. Goes great with stews, chicken, veal, etc, or on its own as hearty pseudo-main dish.

[42_42_42]

Red Beans 'n Rice

Make rice

For the red beans, drain can of beans and rinse well.
Add them to a pot along with 1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 1/4 tsp regular salt) and 1/2 tsp black pepper (or more or less to taste)
Add in about 1/4 cup cubed ham hock or salt pork (I prefer ham hock), 1/2 cup diced onion, 1 or 2 bay leaves, and just enough water to cover.
Bring water to boil, then cover and reduce heat to low.
Let simmer until the rice is cooked.
Drain and remove bay leaves.
Mix beans and rice together.
Add hot sauce if so inclined (my husband eats his with a generous amount of Texas Pete, I prefer mine without any hot sauce).

For black beans, I do the same as above, leaving out the ham hock/salt pork and adding in 1/2 c diced bell or poblano pepper. After draining, I add in 1/2 c or so of fresh tomato, chopped. Then I mix everything together. Sometimes I cook a cup or so of frozen corn and mix that in with the rice and black beans.

For pinto beans, I do exactly as I do with the red beans, only there I prefer salt pork instead of ham hock and I remove any bits of the salt pork left when I pick out the bay leaves. After mixing with the rice, I'll grate some montery jack or quesadilla or chihuahua cheese over each individual bowl.

These make great cheap main dishes and I usually fill out the meals with baked sweet potatoes and some fried plantains and corn bread. These are all really flexible recipes. You can spice the red bean one up by using cubed Andouille sausage instead of the ham hock and chorizo is a great addition to the black beans or the pintos. If you know how to soak dried beans and cook from scratch, it makes these dishes even cheaper. I've never had good luck doing that, so I just stick with the canned beans. The bonus of that is that I can do these last minute, as I can keep the cans of beans and rice on hand in the pantry and I always have ham hock, salt pork and onions in stock.

[Chromatix]

Just a few drops of soy sauce - that's the simple way to add flavour to rice. But don't let any real Asians catch you doing that...

[Pixilated]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everybody! Wow! I foresee I will be doing a LOT of cooking ... all of it rice ... in the foreseeable future!

Brother, sister and their respective families are gone and I ate so much (and generally so badly!) during the time they were here, and for a few days afterwards (brother left half a dozen humongous apple fritters on my kitchen table, from the They're Everywhere!! coffee and donut shop), that I really need to pull up my socks and take off some of the poundage I surely put on during those five days of frivolity.

[Dreamstalker]

Look up Bimbimbap

Japanese use a seasoning called Furikake

Mmmm, furikake (that reminds me, I need some more). If you go to a good Asian grocery, they have about a dozen different kinds. I got something at an Asian supermarket in NJ called "Rice Booster"; it has different kinds of barley, etc and you just add it to rice while it cooks.

[Jester]

Jambalaya.

Stir fry.

Gumbo.

Rice and beans.

Dirty rice.

Chicken and rice soup.

Rice pudding. (I suggest this despite my utter despisal of the dish.)

Risotto.

You can find recipes for all of these online. I can also offer you my recipes for the first two, which I make often enough. Or, if you're a complete whacko like me, you can use the rice to make Mexican lasagne! (Yes, I'll share that recipe as well, if you want.)

Good luck! And remember, rice is only as boring as you let it be.