Easy Brazilian Rice Recipe

Anyone else love rice like us? We can eat it for every meal. We don't discriminate on types either. We love each and every type of rice. Recipe developer and health coach Miriam Hahn certainly mirrors that sentiment, and she has graced us this Brazilian Rice dish. So what makes this dish Brazilian? "Brazilian rice is different from regular rice because you cook it with onion, garlic and oil," Hahn explains. "It gives the rice a lot of flavor and the oil adds a silkiness to it that is delicious."

To make this dish, you will need long-grain rice. Hahn notes that "you can use any long-grain rice. Traditionally they use white but I have also made it with brown and it works great." Depending on what type of long grain rice you want to use, either should work well. Alright, enough talking. Let's get cooking! See below for our step by step guide on how to make this tasty dish.

To make this Brazilian Rice dish, we first need to gather our ingredients. You will need long grain rice, olive oil, one onion, minced garlic, boiling water, and salt. If desired, you can top this rice with a few sprigs of cilantro. In terms of equipment, you need a few things: a colander, a pot, a tea kettle (or another pot), and a fork. That's it! Let's get started cooking this rice.

Before cooking our rice, we need to give the rice a good rinse. Add the rice to a thin-holed colander, so the rice does not slip through the holes, and place under cold running water. Allow the water to drain off the rice. Hahn notes that by rinsing the rice, "you remove some of the starch. This keeps the rice from getting sticky or gummy" upon cooking. Follow Hahn's advice and be sure to rinse your rice before cooking.

Next up, place a medium-sized pot on the stove top over medium heat. Once the pot is hot, add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the diced onion and minced garlic. Sauté the onion and garlic until fragrant and the onion begins to turn translucent, about four minutes. Then, add the rinsed rice to the pot and sauté for about two minutes to infuse the rice with the flavors of the onion and garlic.

Now, it is time to cook the rice. Go ahead and boil 2 cups of water in a tea kettle or another pot. Once the water is boiling, pour carefully into the pot with the rice, onion, and garlic. Then add the salt to the pot. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook covered for 20 minutes. Once the time is up, remove the cover and turn off the heat. Using a fork, fluff the rice.

We'd recommend serving this alongside other traditional Brazilian dishes such as Brazilian cheese puffs or Brazilian chicken stew. Because this dish is rather simple, you could serve this alongside many other dishes that would work well with rice, such as soups, stewed beans, stews, and cooked proteins. Hahn recommends eating Brazilian rice as a "side dish for fish, meat or chicken but also good with stir fried vegetables or savory beans."

If you have any leftovers of this Brazilian rice, be sure to store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Hahn notes that "leftovers last good for up to a week. Because of the oil, the rice stays soft and moist. It is easy to heat up in the oven or microwave." This is good to know as sometimes leftover rice can become a bit stale. This way the rice will last longer than most.