Coconut Rice
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Oct. 13, 2022
Humble rice gets a remake with coconut milk, transforming the ordinary to extraordinary! It’s the perfect accompaniment to many tropical and Asian dishes! It couldn’t be easier to bring rice to a deliciously exotic level.
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Big things come in small packages.
It’s like white rice – it’s plain and simple. Humble by all accounts. Until you do a little tweaking and inhale the aroma.
Until you take that first bite, and stare unbelievably at that bowl of simple white rice and realize it’s not at all what you thought it would be…
Being Asian American, I grew up on white rice. Not even the nutty brown rice I adamantly feed my own kiddos. No, I grew up on bowls and bowls of plain old white rice. Every. Single. Day.
I hated it as a kid. But once I left the nest? Ever since that time, I’ve have a soft spot for fluffy soft, perfectly cooked white rice. I could eat it by the spoonful. I did eat it by the spoonful.
But this Coconut Rice was a startling discovery for me. I don’t know how we managed to go through years of eating, without tasting this deliciousness.
I made this scrumptious Coconut Rice to go alongside my Pan Seared Mahi Mahi recently. And once everyone downed every last bite on their plate, I knew we were onto something good.
I went on to make this Coconut Rice for the next two weeks straight, and my boys noshed on it eagerly and happily. By the spoonful, straight and unadorned.
I still generally adhere to whole grains and brown rice because I’m that kind of mama in real life 🙂 But now I always keep a stash of coconut milk in my pantry because Coconut Rice will want to make an appearance on our table in dinner rotation fashion.
Did you make this?
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Coconut Rice
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups uncooked white jasmine rice
- 1 can coconut milk, shaken up, 14 oz.
- 1 tsp white sugar
- ½ tsp table salt
- kosher salt to taste
- 1 ¼ cups water
- Optional garnishes: chopped cilantro, green onions, or macadamia nuts
Instructions
- In a heavy pot, combine coconut milk, sugar, 1/2 tsp table salt, and water. Stir on low heat just until sugar dissolves. Add rice. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Immediately cover and reduce to simmer. Simmer 25 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Keep covered (no peeking!) and let sit 15 minutes.
- Gently fluff the rice. If there is a bit of coconut foam on top, simply fluff it into the rice. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt to taste, and fluff again. Serve warm.
Nutrition (per serving)
Source: Chew Out Loud
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