Brown rice mutiny

[Joker]

My family refuses to eat brown rice. It doesn't matter how its cooked or what its paired with - they hate it. I could try to force the issue if it was just my dds, but my dh hates it as well. Is there something in between white and brown rice that I don't know about? Is there a trick? We eat rather healthy - lots of fruits and veggies (organic as much as we can) and the majority of our food is homemade. Is it really that much unhealthier to eat white instead of brown?

[lllll]

..

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

A friend shared with me a recipe, but I have lost it. I am pretty sure it is out of a Sue Gregg cookbook. It is supposed to make the brown rice taste exactly like white rice. Hopefully someone else will know what I am talking about and we can both benefit.:D

[JoyfulMama]

There was mutiny here, too, a while back. I decided it was one thing I could live without. :glare:

[eternalknot]

Adding to the aforementioned solution to mix it into sushi, why not use brown rice as a filler (burritos, tacos, wraps, bell peppers, etc.) and save white rice for the more occasional plating (stir-fry, etc.) I'd guess you'd have the best luck finding a shorter-grain brown rice; check different markets or Amazons for brands because I know I've seen some that are lighter in color than others. The shorter grains will probably feel more familiar to white rice, for most families who use white rice.

 

Or try brown rice cereal as a hot breakfast option. You could use brown rice flour in your baking - pancakes? waffles? muffins?

 

You could also try mixing it for awhile. My sister's husband wouldn't touch brown rice, so she started mixing it. For a few months she did 1 part brown to 3 parts white. Then 2 parts brown to 2 parts white. Then 3 parts brown to 1 part white. Then she stopped because he said, "Haven't I given up enough?! Can't I have just a little bit of white rice?!?!" LOL so that's what they make currently.

 

To me, if the rest of the eating is relatively healthy, rice is not a hill I'd die on. I wouldn't give up, I'd probably compromise at the part-brown, part-white ratio ... but I'd definitely take into account the tastes of the family.

[Allearia]

converted white rice supposedly has a lot of the nutrients pushed into it during the process of, whatever they do I guess.

 

I understand... I don't like brown rice myself so I am having a hard time switching. I think I'd mostly rather skip the rice than eat brown rice. My son generally eats his with black beans so I figure he is getting a lot of fiber there.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I can get a kind of brown rice that looks white (sort of cream colored) and is much softer than brown rice. My family loves it. It is called Sukoyaka Genmai.

 

Also - you can mix brown and white rice. I would mix 2 cups of white to 1 c. brown.

[katemary63]

My family refuses to eat brown rice. It doesn't matter how its cooked or what its paired with - they hate it. I could try to force the issue if it was just my dds, but my dh hates it as well. Is there something in between white and brown rice that I don't know about? Is there a trick? We eat rather healthy - lots of fruits and veggies (organic as much as we can) and the majority of our food is homemade. Is it really that much unhealthier to eat white instead of brown?

 

No, brown rice is horrible no matter what you do to it. I've even had it in restaurants and it's horrible there too. Like someone else said, If I believed white rice was bad for me, I'd simply stop eating rice. I'd never choose to eat brown rice. Yuck.

Edited May 23, 2010 by katemary63

[Margo out of lurking]

There was mutiny here, too, a while back. I decided it was one thing I could live without. :glare:

 

I agree. My family happily usually will eat brown rice (that's happily for ME, they would prefer white). But it's not worth it if they really don't like it.

[Joker]

Thanks! I actually never thought of mixing the brown and white. :tongue_smilie: It's what I do with flour in some recipies so I don't know why it never crossed my mind. I will also look into the different types of brown.

[Ellie]

I'm with your dc. As much as I've tried, I cannot bring myself to eat brown rice. Blech.

 

You know, your dc can get nutrients from their other food. Let them enjoy the white rice. :)

[Joker]

I will say I'm surprised some have said white rice doesn't equal bad. We've been on quite a ride the last year trying to improve our eating habits. I've heard a lot, it seems, about white rice being bad. I'm soooo glad to hear some of you say you don't feel it's that big of a deal. I prefer white but could easily eat the brown. My dc and my dh would go to McD's before touching the brown stuff. I will try mixing the white and brown and see how that goes but if it fails I will just stick with white.

[kalanamak]

What kind?

Basmati is good. I make rice a roni for newbies...cook with broth, add in seasoning and some grease.

 

Kedgerdee can be made with brown bas very well, and I know it sounds odd, but ratatouille is delicious over brown bas.

[Melissa in FL]

The only kind of brown rice we eat is Uncle Ben's. IMHO it's much better than the other brands (and we tried them all). My family wouldn't eat the other brands. When we started changing our diet I did it as slow as possible and really tried to transition to the new food. I started with mostly white (also Uncle Bens) and added just a little brown when I cooked it. I slowly added more and more till it was 1/2 and 1/2. I think we ate it that way for about a year before I started adding more brown rice again. It's taken a long time but we only eat Brown rice now. My kids find it a treat to get white rice when we order Chinese but they all like brown rice at home too.

 

The only thing I could not get my family to eat was the whole wheat pasta. We tried every brand there was and they just hated it. We now only buy the Barilla Plus. After all the whole wheat pasta I tried to push into them they loved the Barilla Plus and I think it's better than the regular pasta.

HTH

Melissa

[sbgrace]

We use mostly buckwheat grouts instead of rice in dishes. My family likes brown rice ok but I prefer buckwheat taste and it's healthier (I believe) than rice as well.

[Joker]

I'll try the Uncle Ben's as well. What's funny it they actually prefer the whole wheat pasta to the regular. They like my cookies / muffins / pancakes with the whole wheat flour more than with the regular. They just really don't like brown rice.

[Melissa in FL]

I'll try the Uncle Ben's as well. What's funny it they actually prefer the whole wheat pasta to the regular. They like my cookies / muffins / pancakes with the whole wheat flour more than with the regular. They just really don't like brown rice.

 

My family loves any baked goods no matter what flour I use! I like cooking with whole wheat flour. Well, except bread, I need to mix white into that also. Their favorite homemade bread actually is an oatmeal one. What brand of Whole wheat pasta do you use? Maybe I should retry, I know they've come out in some new brands.

Melissa

[Joker]

My family loves any baked goods no matter what flour I use! I like cooking with whole wheat flour. Well, except bread, I need to mix white into that also. Their favorite homemade bread actually is an oatmeal one. What brand of Whole wheat pasta do you use? Maybe I should retry, I know they've come out in some new brands.

Melissa

 

 

The girls love the Ronzoni. I keep asking for the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid. I hope to get it soon so I can experiment.

[Pretty in Pink]

We prefer the 'boil in a bag' brown rice to regular (though I'm sure there's something terribly unhealthy about paraboiled rice and boiling plastic...) but we do like brown breakfast rice.

 

Traditional asian diets are considered quite healthy and don't they consume lots of white rice? I'm not too worried about it. It's not like we eat rice every day of the week.

[Peela]

Basmati rice, even white, is very healthy. I compromise and usually use that.

 

However, I find my family is much more lenient toward brown rice if I soak it overnight or for a few hours first. It goes quite soft then, when cooked.

 

Also I have been known to mix 50/50 pre cooked white and brown rice to make fried rice.

[Catherine]

I'm surprised-my bunch cqn be choosy about some things, but they don't mind brown at all. I like its chewiness.

[Rosie_0801]

We've been eating brown rice so long I don't like white any more!

 

Rosie

[keptwoman]

We prefer brown, although one child complains because it's "tasteless.' Bad luck I'm afraid, it's what you get around these here parts. The thing I've learnt is that it really has to be cooked well, it takes much longer to cook than white rice. I think the last time we tried it (and all hated it) we weren't actually cooking it enough.

[Orthodox6]

Change brands of rice. With some brands, the individual raw grains are more "shellac-y" on the outside than others. (If you cook with brown rice, you know what I'm trying to describe.)

 

Also, gauge your recipes. Some recipes do better with "converted" rice, or with Arborio, or even the blah stripped-down white rice. It depends upon what you are making.

[HollyDay]

Mine will not eat white rice! They think it is bland and sticky and won't eat it, even in restaurants.

 

Have you tried cooking it with a broth (chicken, beef, veggie)?

[Matryoshka]

We've been eating brown rice so long I don't like white any more!

 

 

:iagree: This is true here too... when I get to a restaurant that only serves white rice, I can barely eat the stuff (which I guess is good for my waistline)! We eat pretty much completely whole grain, and white stuff - white rice, white flour - tastes like wallpaper paste to me now. Blech.

 

We actually don't eat that much brown rice, though, because it takes 45 min. to cook. More often we have whole wheat pasta, quinoa or kasha as sides, all of which take 10-20 min. to prepare. I have to admit that I have a few frozen brown rice bags from Trader Joe's to use in a pinch.

[Ellyndria]

I pretty much only make brown rice. Occasionally a white basmati. But I rarely serve plain rice as a side, so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

For Spanish rice I'll use a regular store brand long grain brown rice, and by the time it cooks about 50 minutes with the tomato sauce and spices and turns orange/red colored, you can't tell by looks whether it was white or brown. I can't really tell by taste either.

 

For serving with stir frys or using to make fried rice, I usually use a medium grain brown, but sometimes long, and it gets cooked in the rice cooker on the GABA-brown setting if I have time. (It takes about 3.5 hours for the GABA setting.) It always comes out perfectly soft whether I use the GABA-brown or regular brown setting.

 

I think it helps to use it in fried rice, because by the time you get all the soy sauce in there, the rice is gonna look brown anyway. Also, serving it with a stir fry, it soaks up the sauce and gets yummy that way.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Ellyndria

[Laura Corin]

When you cook it, is it cooked soft? I have to put extra water in my rice cooker for it to cook the brown rice as thoroughly as it does white rice.

 

Laura

[LibraryLover]

What about Jasmine brown rice? Or Basmati?

 

Or skip rice and try a lighter grain like quiona or millet.

Edited May 23, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Joker]

I always cook it in my rice cooker and it has a brown rice setting so it cooks a lot longer than the white. I've never had a problem with it being too hard. I don't think its a texture problem - I think they just don't like the taste. I didn't realize there were so many different types. I guess I just never paid that much attention. Next time I go to the store I will get a few different choices and try mixing it with white and see how it goes. Thanks so much for all the replies!

[MaMa2005]

We eat a sweet brown rice - it is sticky like sushi rice. My DH is the pickiest eater on the planet and he even eats it. I don't have the name, but I find it in the Asian markets.

 

I won't touch the regular brown rice with a 10 foot pole.

[justamouse]

Huh, I'm stymied.

 

I make it just like normal rice. I saute garlic and onion in EVOO, salt and pepper, add in the grains, saute a bit more and then cover with water, bring to a boil then simmer.

 

Sometimes I make it like red rice (peppers, tomato and a bit of bacon), other times I make Greek rice (dill, lemon and raisins).

[SproutMamaK]

Try basmati rice- my family didn't like brown rice either, but they'll eat basmati.

[TengoFive]

I haven't read all the replies, so excuse me if this is a repeat. Try gradually mixing more and more brown rice into your white rice. They'll gradually develop and taste for it. Start with just a very small amount and work up until you're eating all brown.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

My family refuses to eat brown rice. It doesn't matter how its cooked or what its paired with - they hate it. I could try to force the issue if it was just my dds, but my dh hates it as well. Is there something in between white and brown rice that I don't know about? Is there a trick? We eat rather healthy - lots of fruits and veggies (organic as much as we can) and the majority of our food is homemade. Is it really that much unhealthier to eat white instead of brown?

 

I apologize both for coming late to the discussion and for not reading the previous replies . . . but may I recommend brown jasmin?

 

It has less fiber (per the label) than the brown basmati we had been using. My family also kept complaining until I looked at them and compared fiber content. The jasmin is still bown rice but with less fiber, it isn't so woody.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

When you cook it, is it cooked soft? I have to put extra water in my rice cooker for it to cook the brown rice as thoroughly as it does white rice.

 

Laura

 

Me, too.

[Entropymama]

I buy jasmine rice at Costco.. it's long grain but not as, um, brown ricey as brown rice. :)

 

Check out Whole Foods or Trader Joes.. they have lots of different varieties.

[kewb]

From the moment my children were born I only fed them brown rice. My oldest was 6 when I finally decided this was not worth the fight anymore. They hate it. My dh hates it. I don't love it but will eat it. Rice is not a staple around here so I make white when I make rice. Everyone is happy.

[Tap]

Here is a chart that compares basic Brown, White and Enriched White rice

 

Here is an article from Livestrong about wild rice vs brown rice

 

 

Have you tried using wild rice (not really rice at all) as a side instead of plain brown? It is a whole grain and is more nutritious than brown rice.

 

Then you can serve white rice (alone or with a mixture of brown) without guilt, knowing it is being balanced with the wild rice on other days.

 

I don't know much about it, but I have read that converted, enriched white rice has more nutrients because more are still intact, and others are added back in. Not my favorite idea, with all the processing, but as an alternative to plain white....it may offer more nutrition.

 

We use a mixture of long grains, brown, white and a little of everything in between. I think the variety makes me less likely to say 'I don't like brown' (which I don't by itself).

 

I really like the rice blends at stores like TJs. They often combine grains and rice that have similar cooking times, and I find the mixtures to be more palatable.

 

There is a TJs Long grain brown rice, barley and Daikon radish seeds that is wonderful in chicken soup.

[AFwife Claire]

Thanks! I actually never thought of mixing the brown and white. :tongue_smilie: It's what I do with flour in some recipies so I don't know why it never crossed my mind. I will also look into the different types of brown.

 

I mix brown and white rice too. I do the same portion of white and brown rice--so 3 cups white and 3 cups brown. (We love rice, LOL) I use a sticky jasmine rice for the white rice, and I have found that in my rice cooker, it doesn't take the brown rice any longer to cook or anything. My kdis love it! But they are not such big fans of plain brown rice.

[3littlekeets]

Ha! I thought I was the only mother on earth that failed on this one! I have tried to season it every which way and my kids simply hate it. I feel quite relieved....sigh....

[twoxcell]

We all love brown rice here:001_smile:, but maybe we are weird:lol:. I use a rice cooker though.

[hsmom2girls]

I have tried to go the brown rice route but it's hard. I have found that you can get away with it if you use it with things that cover it.

 

For example if you make "blackeyed peas and rice" and put the blackeyed peas over the rice with the broth it's very delicious and you can't taste that it is brown rice.

 

I also had a recipe from Rachel Ray. It was features on her stretch a buck show. You basically take 1 pound of hamburger and stretch it by adding brown rice and some pinto beans and spices. You cook it like you do a hamburger (of course she used the healthy oils to cook it in). The beans and rice in it was good gave it a really nice flavor and I can't tell that it's brown rice. I actually substituted with turkey but it was still good.

 

So all said if you use brown rice in recipes that "the rice" is a mix with other ingredients instead of the brown rice eaten separately you may be able to get away with it.

 

I wouldn't even tell them it's brown rice I would just create it and see what happens. If they know they will automatically assume it will taste bad.