By now, you’re probably all familiar with my great love and respect for a well-made bone broth. I’ve been making broth for a couple years now but I’m always looking for more ways to use it and even ways to make it more nutritious. This post is about the former, but if you have any great tips for the latter, let me know.
I just finished listening to the Wise Traditions podcast “In the Garden” and Celeste Longacre was describing how she puts beet and carrot greens in her broth to add vitamins and minerals. I’m so doing that next time!
Anyway, rice is a staple in our house. My husband loves it and the first time I’d made the rice this way he told me I could make rice every night and he would eat it. It’s delicious because it’s not just a tasteless starch. It’s a starch that has absorbed all the wonderful nutrients that are in the bone broth. It contains gelatin, glucosamine and chondroitin. If they sound familiar to you, that’s because many people take them as supplements for joint health. I honestly didn’t know they were available in food form until I learned about the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Way too many of us are exclusively educated by food marketers, advertisements and packages. It’s a shame that we learn about “new” vitamins and nutrients because a food company finally puts it on a violator. {Violator: packaging term to describe the little banner or call out to catch attention.} We look for “whole grain” and “Omega 3” but do you really know what they mean? We should be getting our health and nutrition information from unbiased sources. We should look at centuries of cultures that have been free of disease and replicate what they do.
But, for now, let’s get back to the recipe. This one is SO simple if you have the broth on hand. I try to keep several quarts of broth in the freezer. Each quart jar is filled with 3 cups of broth. When freezing broth, you need to always allow for expansion upwards. 3 cups of broth is the perfect amount to use with 1 ½ cups of rice. A nice amount to serve four. I use fresh herbs at the end of this recipe but this could also be done with half the amount of dried herbs added to the broth and rice. Your choice.
A few notes:
- I have a rice cooker. If you don’t have one, you should get one today.
- This can also be made in an instapot, just follow your directions for the unit.
- It can be made in pot on the stove but I’ll be honest, I only use glass lids so that I can see what the food is doing inside. I detest solid lids. Too many times a recipe for rice says “Don’t open the lid until done.” Well, that doesn’t help me at all. How do you know if it’s “done” if you can’t see it? That being said, I would guess that the rice in a pot on the stove (with lid on) would be done in about 20 minutes of a slow simmer. You’ll have to check it at some point. If the liquid is not all absorbed, return the lid and simmer for 5 more minutes but I would suggest you get yourself a glass lid to make life easier next time. 😉
- I use basmati or jasmine rice. My brother-in-law is from Pakistan and that’s what my sister has me hooked on.
- I use chicken bone broth that I’ve previously made so that’s not a part of the recipe here.
- Grass-fed butter will add even more nutrients if served together.
- 1 ½ cup basmati or jasmine rice
- 3 cups well-made bone broth
- 2 Tbls. fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, etc. Your choice.
- Butter to finish
- Salt to taste
- Rinse rice in a sieve under cold water to remove some of the starch.
- Combine broth and rice in rice cooker.
- Cook until done. 😉
- Remove rice to large bowl, add fresh herbs and combine.
- Add some butter to large bowl of rice or offer it as a topping for the individual bowls.
- Serve immediately.