by Daisy Dao
Cooking parboiled rice is easy, but for the uninitiated, you can overcook it, add more or less salt to it, under-cook it or even make it too sticky. You don’t want to end up throwing those precious grains, do you?
That’s why in this article, I will give you three surefire methods to cook parboiled rice. These methods are easy to follow and depending on what kind of cooker you have, you just pick what applies best.
Parboiling is basically soaking and steaming the rice while it’s still in the hull before being dried. After the grain is dried, the hull is removed to get the parboiled grain. This process will return some of the essential minerals and vitamins back to the grain so that you end up eating not only the carbohydrates but the nutrients and fibers as well.
Contents
Parboiled rice has an altered texture and when properly cooked, it will give you a firm and separated grain. The steaming process does not cook the rice and that’s why it still takes 15-20 minutes to prepare.
The advantage of having parboiled rice compared to other preparations is that it’s guaranteed to be free from gluten and cholesterol. You don’t only get carbohydrates like in the case of polished white rice, you’d also get Vitamin B Complex and a host of other minerals too. The estimates below is based on a serving of 1 cup of cooked parboiled rice.
A serving of parboiled rice will give you 41 grams of complex carbohydrate, that is a third of the daily requirement of 130 grams, that your body uses as energy. It has 1.4 grams of fibers which satisfy 4% of men and 6% for women’s daily fiber needs. It has twice the fiber and has way lower glycemic index of 38 compared to white rice which has 89 according to a Harvard Health publication. This means that if you eat parboiled rice, you won’t get a huge spike in your blood sugar.
In one cup of cooked parboiled rice, you will get 4 milligrams of niacin and that amounts to 23% of our daily recommended intake. You will also get 19% of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin B6. Our body needs B-complex vitamins not only to metabolize food but also to produce hormones and neurotransmitters. It also removes high levels of amino acids called homocysteine from your bloodstream which is associated with increased risk cardiovascular diseases.
A serving of parboiled rice supplies 3 percent of the daily recommended intake of magnesium, potassium, calcium and iron. You will also get 0.58 milligrams of zinc which amounts to 5% of men’s and 7% of women’s daily needs. Zinc is known to strengthen the immune system and produce cells that fight bacterial infection. Without zinc, your immune system will be impaired opening you up to all sorts of diseases.
There are organic parboiled rice varieties that you can also find in local shops or online stores. If it’s possible to know the producers of the grain, so much the better. But if you can’t, try to find some customer reviews before buying it or ask your friends for brand recommendations and experience.
Do you have any parboiled rice experience that you’d like to share? Or maybe you have a recipe that you swear by? Please don’t hesitate to drop a comment below.
About Daisy Dao
Daisy grew up on the beautiful Honolulu island where she often found herself spending most of her day enjoying the ocean scent in sea waves. As such, Daisy came to appreciate the art of cooking seafood. She has experimented with baking, roasting, broiling, poaching, grilling (and every other cooking technique you can think of); and with all kinds of spices too. Now she is ready to present her experience: the art of cooking healthy food without any pre-packaged ingredients; food product recommendations for people who need a bit more guidance on what goes into their bodies; how to maintain an active lifestyle without having to give up your favorite foods!
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