Ich! Bland rice!
 

I just whipped up a bunch of white rice for lunch.
Only it's too bland for me. Any advice for some cheap seasonings or anything else to put in it to make it a little more exciting?

I've got a limited budget to work with, <3 rice for being so inexpensive to begin with.

Thanks in advance, guys!

Let's see, I use (pick one or 2):

spaghetti sauce (any kind)
pizza sauce
cheese (1 portion)
garlic and onion (fresh or powder)
parsely and butter (1/2 portion)
soy/teriyaki sauce
sweet n' sour sauce
mix in a veggie
1 portion of any lean meat
salsa
sour cream

Basically, if it tastes good with any other starch, I'm game to give it a go. :)

I cook mine in chicken stock instead of water (sometimes I'll use a boullion cube instead, and just put it in the water) with salt, pepper, and a fresh herb of some kind. I made rice with lemon juice and fresh thyme the other day - it was DIVINE. Served some shrimp skewers marinated in teriyaki sauce over it - sooo good. Would be good with chicken as well.

I do the same thing as mandaline with the boullion and chicken broth. I also add in broccoli or sometimes peas. I don't use white rice but brown rice because it's more nutritional. Bleached anything (sugar, flour) has little or no nutritional value so now I use Splenda instead of sugar, whole grain wheat bread instead of white, and brown rice.

You can get those boxes of instant rice that come in many different flavors and are really cheap and really low in fat grams. I think it's Uncle Bens not sure.

Or...make a stir fry. Get the stir fry packet in the Asian section and follow the directions on it. Again I used brown rice instead of white but I added green onions, chicken, eggs, and water chestnuts. You can get lite soy sauce if you like. It's yummy.

I second, or third, the chicken stock....I never cook bland rice unless it is going under a stirfry or something else....

Try brown rice... it has a nutty flavor and wonderful texture. Nothing bland or boring about it.

There are so many yummy rices from around the world that I don't even bother with plain white. Check out the lotus foods website for some ideas...

http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/n...ome.d2w/report

My personal favorite is forbidden rice, a black rice from China.

Forbidden Rice - "Legend tells us that this ancient grain was once eaten exclusively by the Emperors. Today, this medium-size Chinese black rice can be enjoyed everyday and is prized for its delicious nutty taste, soft texture, and beautiful rich deep purple color. High in nutritional and medicinal value, Forbidden Rice® is rich in iron and considered a blood tonifier. Unlike other black rice from Asia, it is not glutinous or rough and cooks in only 30 minutes to produce a superior flavor, texture, and color."

Thanks everyone. These are really good suggestions. I kind of feel silly for not thinking up any, I just ended up using soy sauce for today >_> Tomorrow my rice will be yummier, I'm sure...I'll try these!

Purple nutty rice sounds exciting <3

Yamasa!

Genesis, thanks for mentioning the Lotus Foods rice! I just found them at our local health food store. I bought the black Forbidden rice as well as the Bhutanese red rice. I can't wait to try them!

From my Mexican neighbors, I've learned to flavor my rice as follows:
1. cook the rice with tomato boullion and diced carrots or
2. add "sazon," a seasoning made by Goya found in the Latino food section or
3. stir fry the rice in oil until translucent before adding water and diced veggies

I used to add a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup into the pan with the rice and water just after it started to boil but before covering with a lid.

Splenda and cinnamon!!! Yummy!!

My DH loves rice and adds his favorite condensed soup as part of the water. Crm of broccoli, cheese, mushroom and so on.

Suzanne - I'm glad you were able to find some of the lotus rice in your area. I am sure you'll love them!!!!

in a pan add few drops of oil, add cumin seeds and flakes of red chilli. add white rice and stir briskly. Add salt and sueeze 1/4 th lemon.

It tastes great!