I always find myself saying "You know you feel old when you get excited about a new appliance!" I should start out by saying I am absolutely HORRIBLE at cooking rice. I don't know if I just can't figure it out, or if the rice-to-water ratio is just not right on the box! Either way, I finally decided to pick up my very own rice cooker! I found a recipe while stalking reading the beautiful
Annie Jaffrey's blog. She is fully vegan and mostly raw, which is something I would love to eventually get to, but for now, I would love to incorporate more vegan options into our dinner routines.
It's so easy in the winter to reach for warm carb-y foods, my downfall is pizza (specifically Domino's...sigh...) but I know that I won't feel well after eating those kinds of meals. I know rice isn't the BEST, but for us, it's better than the other options we would probably go for!
I found this rice cooker at Target for right around the $20 mark. There were bigger and fancier options, but as I looked at the reviews online I saw someone posted something along the lines of "Unless you have a family of 10, no one needs a 12 cup rice cooker." Bingo. This one from Oster is a "3" cup cooker. I put the quotes around 3 because the little measuring cup that comes with it is not in your traditional cooking size, it's specific to the cooker (aka DON'T you dare lose it! haha!)
This cooker is a perfect size for the two of us and was SO easy to assemble and operate! The meal that Annie made in the specific recipe I was trying to recreate was a delicious stir-fry (kind-of). My boyfriend LOVES stir-fry so I knew this would be a go ahead from him!
The cooker also comes with (which most do) a veggie tray for steaming all kinds of veggies! It sits on top of the rice, so the steam from the water/rice combo steams the veggies! Loving cooking two things at once, when all I have to do is turn the device on! :)
My grocery haul consisted of:
2 Organic Sweet Potatoes
3 Red Skin Potatoes
1 Bag of Organic Peeled Baby Carrots
1 Garlic (used about 1/4 of a clove)
1 Organic Lime
1 Can of Water Chestnuts
1 Can of Organic Tomato Sauce
1 Leaf of Organic Kale
I knew that we had a bunch of rice at home, but I wanted to try white to see how the cooker would do. Generally, we eat brown rice with our meals.
I chopped up all of the veggies into quite small pieces, as I was worried about the sweet potatoes not completely steaming as quickly as the rice cooked. I also added in some fresh parsley and rosemary for taste.
One of my girlfriends who went to culinary school said for an added taste boost - add half water and half vegetable stock in with your rice! I'll definitely have to try that next time!
I'm not going to lie - it did take me a minute to figure out the instructions on measurement. I think it was just because I was really REALLY hungry and couldn't focus on anything but wanting to just eat it all right then!
How cute is this?! I just LOVE the idea of everything cooking at once and it being 100% Vegan! I will have to play around with it a little bit more to get the timing right on everything, and see how the different veggies steam.
Of course, I forgot to take a photo after it was all cooked and steamed, most likely again, because I was so hungry there was no way I was waiting another second to eat this delicious meal! It was super delish and also boyfriend approved!
What are your favorite meals to make with a rice cooker? Anything I should try instead?
Thanks again for the great recipe, Annie!
XOXO,
E
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