Easy Rice & Grain Recipe Ideas

Looking for easy rice and grain recipes? Perhaps an easy Spanish rice recipe? Or a new way to make bulgur or couscous? Here's the place to find some quick and easy rice or grain inspiration. So many times when I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner I wish I had a list of ideas to refer to -- so that's what I'm creating here, in the hopes that it will help you too.

This list will be expanding each week with meal ideas and suggestions. Updated after each weekday recipe blog post, this list contains seasonal rice and grain ideas based upon the U.S. Eastern time zone -- that means we're looking at springtime meal inspiration until the summer solstice in June.

 

• top cooked bulgur or brown rice with a slice or two of fried feta cheese

• Baked Rice Recipe (with Barley)

• Marinated Quick Barley & Bean Salad Recipe

• cook a pot of quinoa; when it's almost done, sauté several diced veggies from the crisper drawer in a bit of olive oil: onions, bell peppers, carrots, etc. with a dash of onion salt and thyme - stir into quinoa and serve

 

Quickest Cooking Grains – 20 minutes or less

  • Amaranth
  • Barley (quick variety)
  • Buckwheat
  • Bulgur
  • Millet
  • Oats – (quick oats)
  • Quinoa
  • Brown Rice – converted
  • Rice – white
  • Tef

Longer Cooking Grains – 25+ minutes

  • Barley – whole or pearl
  • Oats – whole
  • Brown Rice
  • Rye
  • Wheat
  • Wild Rice

 

More Easy Rice & Grain Recipes:

Bulgur Greek-style with Garlic

Jazz up this plain grain by giving it some Greek style and flavor. This gourmet-style dish simmers while you use the 15 minutes to pull together a protein of choice.

 

Five-Spice Indian Stirfry with Chicken  Start with ordinary boneless chicken breasts and veggies, sprinkle in a few spices and turn an every day’s stir-fry into an Indian main dish. Feel free to adapt the veggies on hand: colored peppers, snow peas, broccoli and bean sprouts can mix 'n match. No leftover rice? Put a pot on before you start chopping the veggies and it'll all be ready at the same time.


Leftover Stir-fry  While stir-fries are traditionally made with rice and veggies, we’ve had some delicious variations that utilize unusual combinations of noodles and different grains. The trick is to combine foods that partner well with your choice of complementary seasonings (see chart below).


Mediterranean Chick Pea Rice

Turn a can of chickpeas and some leftover rice into a delightful side dish in only 15 minutes.

 


Quinoa Potato Patties 

Slightly crunchy and nutty, quinoa has been called the perfect food. It is a protein-filled, high quality grain (16-20%) that is as easy-to-prepare as it is delicious to eat. Best of all—most kids love it!

 

Check out more Quick Meal Ideas here (available on menu at top of the site too):

 

What's your favorite quick way to make rice, bulgur ... other grains? Please share on Facebook or twitter.


Need more quick easy ways to make different types of rice and other grains? Search the entire site with the Recipe by Ingredient feature or browse all the recipes alphabetically here.

 


 

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