Use Cooked Rice To Make An Effortless Pie Crust

You've made a tad too much rice for tonight's meal, and dessert is not yet prepared. That excess rice sitting on your stovetop can be easily turned into the makings of pie crust. Using only a few additional ingredients, you can be on your way to having a shell ready to fill with your choice of pie fillings. 

Whether you're hoping to prepare a sweeter dish to serve or want to offer a pie with more savory fillings to your dinner guests, the recipe to make a rice-based pie crust can be easily adjusted. For a savory base — perfect for quiche or as a complement to richer, sweeter custards and fruit-based recipes – combine 2 cups of cooked rice with a quarter cup of grated cheese and an egg white. Press the mixture into the bottom of a pie pan that has been coated with cooking spray, then bake at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes. 

After the rice-based pie crust has been removed from the oven, let the crust cool before filling it with your choice of sweet or savory ingredients. Rice crusts can be used as containers for more savory tuna casserole-inspired meals or broccoli and cheddar quiche, and various herbs and spices can be added to the rice mixture prior to baking. Or, turn rice crusts into sweater treats with sprinkles of cinnamon, sugar, or drizzles of agave syrup that are ready for fillings of blueberry, mousse, or cream.

Once you have the rice crust-making process mastered, you can experiment with your recipes by adding butter, liquid stock, or parsley flakes to create a vessel that is complementary to the recipe you have planned to serve. With such an easy process to make pie crust, you may find yourself making extra rice on purpose the next time you're preparing a meal.