#minute-rice

#minute-rice

You can skip the entire cumbersome step of straining your rice by placing a fine mesh sieve or strainer on top of your pot and pouring the rice directly into it, rather than into the water. Leave the sieve in the pot for the whole cooking process with a cover placed on top. The steam rising from the water will cook the rice, giving you a perfectly separated, airy result.

While some instant ramen can last up to two years, as a general rule of thumb, ramen products are dated six to 12 months out for best quality. Expiration dates are often generated through shelf-life studies conducted by food companies to determine how long dry goods retain their quality. This means sensory attributes, such as texture, taste, and smell.

When I lived in a big city, I used to love treating myself to lunches at trendy salad spots. Tasty as these take-out meals were, they were terrible for my wallet, and I didn't have full visibility into or control over the ingredients that went into them. I've since turned into an avid meal-prepper and make my own lunch - almost always a fiber- and protein-packed grain bowl - for a fraction of the price.

A true one-pot meal, this Indian-spiced rice is made with store-bought spicy simmer sauce, paired with tofu and cauliflower. It's hearty, filling and you can load it up with a range of herbs or crunchy nuts as toppings. We are staying in a little loft in San Francisco right now, trying to find our next place to live. The kitchen is tiny: two electric burners, a microwave, roughly 2 feet of counter space.

Soaked and blended, cashews become a stand-in for heavy cream, keeping stuffed shells, soups, pasta sauces, and desserts luxuriously dairy-free. Toasted and roughly chopped, they add crunch to salads, curries, stir-fries, and more. There are so many reasons to love cooking with these seeds-that's right, "cashew nut" is technically a misnomer, since they grow outside the fruit rather than inside a hard shell like true nuts.

"Even just a few minutes makes a difference," Daud explains. "Resting lets the excess steam escape and gives the starches time to settle, so the rice ends up fluffy instead of wet or clumpy." Daud adds that the go-to time is 10 minutes for a standard amount of rice, but larger batches can require a longer rest. "If I'm making a bigger batch for a dinner party," she says. "I usually give the rice around 30 minutes to rest." However, when making certain "cultural dishes" like maklouba, Daud notes that she will "let it rest up to an hour or even a bit more before serving."

Barley, the grain that is featured in this dish, is one of our most nutritious grains; it contributes protein, thiamine and niacin. Barley also is a rich source of dietary fiber. For a vegan rendition, use vegan yogurt and maple syrup instead of honey in the dressing and use olive oil instead of butter when sauteing the mushrooms. The dish is a main course salad and should be served at room temperature.

This creamy Spinach Lentil Curry is comforting, richly spiced without being heavy and made with just a few pantry staple ingredients in about 30 minutes. Prep Time: 10 minutes. Cook Time: 20 minutes. Servings: Makes 4 servings of approximately 1.5 cups each. Nutrition: 269 calories with 17g protein + 19g fibre. Dietary Info: Vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free. Difficulty: Easy! One-pan recipe with minimal ingredients and prep needed.

In under 30 minutes, this one-pot meal hits all the key food groups - protein, veggie, and starch - for a satisfying, wholesome dinner. Baby bok choy and frozen edamame take next-to-no time to prep before they're layered into the Instant Pot with white rice and a few umami boosters, like toasted sesame oil and mirin. If baby bok choy isn't readily available where you are, sliced cabbage, spinach, or really any dark leafy green will work just as well.

Because my mom mainly learned to cook from my grandma Tina, I grew up eating renditions of Tina's recipes quite frequently. A Tina classic that always made the weekly rotation at our house was cauliflower and rice. It was a very simple soupy, porridge-y mix of cauliflower and rice cooked down in chicken stock. There wasn't much to it, but it always provided a homey sense of comfort.

Jasmine rice gets toasted until fragrant and lightly golden, then it's cooked with coconut milk to yield a supremely nutty base for the salad. Fluffy toasted rice meets crunchy slaw and seared tofu in my gingery, toasted rice salad. When you toast grains of rice until fragrant and golden, it takes on this nutty flavor that adds complexity to whatever you're making.

Each month, our staff shares unfussy recipe ideas that you can call upon any day of the week. Because yes, our editors love to cook, but sometimes we need to get dinner on the table 12 minutes ago. That's when we look to kitchen helpers, humble ingredients that can quickly turn into delicious meals. This month, it's all about store-bought dumplings.

If you're trying to eat more vegetables, consider slurping more soup. Most of them rely on vegetables as a base, and from there, it's easy to add even more for a belly-filling, nourishing meal. Without much effort, you can easily work two servings of vegetables into a single bowl. Soup also happens to be one of the most simple and soul-warming things to make, a breeze to customize and easily packed for lunches,

Need an easy lunch or dinner idea? Try brown lentils! Alex and I love eating lentils for lunches or dinners, since they're full of plant-based protein and keep us full for hours afterwards. This brown lentils recipe results in perfectly seasoned, tender lentils. You can eat them as-is, or add them as a component to tacos, salads, and more. They're a simple protein that makes an easy vegan recipe or healthy dinner!