Jade Rice

You’ll love the moist texture and delicate flavor of jade rice! Its vibrant green color makes it perfect as a side dish or in rice bowls.

Here’s a unique variety of rice that should be on your radar: jade rice! This light green rice has a moist texture and delicate flavor. The color is stunning and unexpected, and the fluffy grains almost tastes like couscous. It’s become a new favorite around here. It’s a tasty side dish, perfect with a curry or in a Buddha bowl. In fact, we couldn’t stop sneaking bites right out of the pot. Here’s more about this unique variety and how to to cook it!

What is jade rice?

Jade rice is sushi rice that’s infused with bamboo extract. The chlorophyll in the bamboo gives a light green color to the grains. Jade rice has a vanilla-like aroma and a sticky yet fluffy texture: almost like a sticky version of couscous. All together, it makes a very pleasurable color, flavor and texture.

Because it’s so unique, it’s become a favorite over and we love using it to change up our regular rice routine. Speaking of…

Ways to use jade rice

There are lots of different ways to use jade rice in your cooking! While it works well with Asian flavors, don’t feel like it has to conform to that template. We made it as a side dish with butter and fresh chopped oregano and basil, and it was excellent! Here are some great ways to use jade rice in recipes:

• With salmon: Add butter and chopped herbs, and it’s great with salmon or other fish.
• Rice bowls: Try it in a rice bowl with black beans, or a Greek-inspired grain bowl.
• Sushi: Use it as a unique and colorful way to make sushi.
• Poke bowl: Give a homemade poke bowl a pop of color.
• Buddha bowls: Use it in a Buddha bowl and drizzle with tahini sauce.
• Fried rice: Add color to homemade fried rice or shrimp fried rice.
• With curry: Try it with a chickpea curry or vegetable curry.

How to cook jade rice: a few tips

Jade rice takes only 20 minutes to cook! You’ll need to steam it for 5 minutes after cooking, so total time is just under 30 minutes. It’s an easy way to a whole grain side dish. Here are a few tips:

• Do not rinse it! Resist the urge to rinse this rice. Rinsing can remove the bamboo, which dulls the dolor.
• The water to rice ratio? 1.5 to 1. The recipe below uses 2 cups rice and 3 cups water; we like to cook 2 cups of rice at once to have enough for leftovers.
• Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Just cook until the water is absorbed.
• Steam covered for 5 minutes! This final step is important! This gets just the right texture for the rice.

When it’s cooked, jade rice is moist and sticky. The texture is stickier than you’d expect from a standard white or brown rice.

Is this type of rice healthy? Nutrition facts

Jade rice has essentially the same nutrition benefits as sushi rice, with a little added chlorophyll from the bamboo. Like any variety of white rice, it’s much lower in fiber and vitamins than brown rice. But it’s relatively high in fiber and low fat. Here are the basic nutrition facts for this type of rice:

Ingredient	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fiber	Fat
Jade rice	210	4 grams	43 grams	0.6 grams	0 grams

More rice recipes!

If you love experimenting with rice, here are all the types of rice and cooking methods to master:

• White rice: How to Cook White Rice (or Instant Pot White Rice)
• Brown rice: How to Cook Brown Rice (or Instant Pot Brown Rice)
• Jasmine rice: How to Cook Jasmine Rice (or Instant Pot Jasmine Rice)
• Basmati rice: How to Cook Basmati Rice (or Instant Pot Basmati Rice)
• Wild rice: Perfect Wild Rice It’s not technically rice, but it’s used as rice in recipes! Read more in the post.

This jade rice recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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