Recipe: Micro-Rice!

First of all, I got a juicer!! I’ll share some of my favorite juices that I’ve whipped up recently sometime soon, but today I want to share this awesome recipe with you first!! I did use my juicer for it, but it isn’t required to have one for you to be able to make this too!!

Rice is high in carbohydrates and not too much else…making it an “empty” source of energy unlike carb sources like vegetables, whole grains, and fruits.  As part of a diet balanced with nutrient-dense foods, this is not a problem and many athletes need this high-carb option to fulfill their energy stores to be able to perform their best!  OR you can have both the energy & and micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) from this Micro-Rice recipe using freshly juiced vegetables!  I used Brown Rice in this recipe, but White can work just the same and both have a nearly identical macronutrient (carb/protein/fat) breakdown.

Using my juicer, I juiced a bunch of different vegetables to use as the liquid to cook the rice in!  But if you don’t have a juicer to do this, you can use any type of purchased vegetable juice like V8, Lakewood brand vegetable juices sold at Whole Foods, or some options from Trader Joe’s!  Here’s how I did it;

Ingredients

1 Cup of Rice

2 Cups of liquid from juicer (2 small tomatoes, 3 carrots, 1 red pepper, 1 handful of Kale [doesn’t make much juice though…I’d skip it next time])

1/2 cup of water

Directions

Following the normal cooking directions for whichever kind of rice you have, substitute the water for your vegetable juice!  Cook until rice is tender, adding some more water if your juice liquid is gone before the rice is soft (I had to add in about 1/2c more for the last bit of cooking to soften my rice more and avoid it burning on the bottom of my pan!)

If you did use a juicer, you can also take the leftover vegetable pulp and mix some in with your rice for the last couple minutes!  The remaining pulp is essentially the fiber from the vegetables so you can include it and get those benefits as well on top of the fiber content of the rice!

Once it’s finished cooking, top with some fresh, chopped chives and dried parsley!  You can serve it stuffed in peppers (like my Recipe: “Caulifloweroni” & Cheese Stuffed Peppers just substitute the rice for the caulironi filling!), alongside proteins like chicken or fish, or mixed with some more vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, or beans!

Because of the vegetables I used (tomatoes, red peppers & carrots), my rice came out bright red!  Experiment with different colors of vegetables and see what color rice you can make!! (My next go-around…purple rice cooked in beet juice?!)