Want to save time and and lower your food expenditure? Invest in a rice cooker. This revelation will be old news for readers who come from cultures that traditionally eat a lot of rice, but it’s been an amazing discovery for someone who doesn’t. Anybody who’s ruined a pot of rice by leaving it too long on the burner, or wondered how to tell if it’s done without letting all the steam out, will tell you it’s a thousand times easier with a rice cooker.
Rice quickly turns a plate of veggies and protein into a satisfying meal, and adds it fiber and even a little protein to the plate.
But don’t stop with just rice. Your rice cooker is the perfect way to steam vegetables, shrimp, steel-cut oats, wheat for Kolyva, or anything else that you want to prepare without frying, added fat, or even working very hard.
They’re the least expensive piece of cooking equipment you’ll ever buy: Rice cookers under $20
My default meal when I’m home tired from work and can’t think of anything to cook is a cup of brown rice, half a can of red or black beans from a can, and half a chopped onion, together with the first three or four herbs and spices that catch my eye in the spice cabinet. If there are mushrooms or green peppers in the fridge, some of those might go in. Add a couple cups of water, turn it on and the rice cooker does all the work.
You put in rice and water (the manual will tell you exactly how much water for brown or white rice), you push the ON button… and you just walk away. In about half an hour for white rice (longer for brown) it’s done – and it’s perfect every time.
Bonus: Here is a tasty One Pot Rice Cooker Meal from Jeeca at The Foodie Takes Flight.
