Carrot Brown Rice, cook ahead for convenience and more!

Having containers of Carrot Brown Rice in your freezer will make dinner time easier, tastier and hassle free! Rice is perfect to cook ahead, come and take a look.

We eat a lot of brown rice in this house! 

And for me, the easiest way to cook it, is in the pressure cooker, and when I do, I cook enough to make several packages for the freezer. One way to make our cooked brown rice seem a bit more festive is to add a grated carrot or two for each cup of rice cooked. I grate it on the coarse side of the hand grater and throw it in with the salt. Give everything a good stir and let it cook. Leaving me free to not worry about a boil over on the stove and attend to other kitchen chores. Once the brown rice is cooked, I open the cooker, give a gentle stir and let it cool down for packaging. 

More than just convenient, cooked ahead and cooled, is actually better for your gut. 

Ironically for many foods cooking ahead has been the kitchen standard for flavor. How many times has that pot of beans been better the next day? Or the pan of lasagna or rigatoni? Yes the flavor has always been just a bit better, but so had digestibility of the starch in the dish. Once I learned about the benefits of resistant starch, with more info found here, I realized how many foods I routinely cooked ahead out of convenience. Turns out all that all along it has been a good decision on my part, and not just convenient!

Once in the freezer, the possibilities for use are endless! 

While I do not use menus as a guideline for our meals, I generally have the a general idea what our dinner will be. Dinner like each meal is based upon ingredients on hand. For many (decades, actually!) years I have simply stocked the cupboard with the foods we need to eat, and those ingredients become our meals. No last minute runs to the store, or going for takeout. This works for us, and is the most convenient way to live, as rural as we do. We go to the market for fresh items about once a week or even less, and use food in what I call "freshness order". With purchased herbs and lettuce on the table right away and things that keep longer later in the week. 

But why Carrot Rice?

While looking at some of the posted bean recipes I have shared here on Scratch Made Food! I noticed that they were served with a side of rice, that had been cooked with a grated carrot or two. Apparently, I have been cooking carrot rice for a few years now! It seemed only natural to simple continue not only with Carrot Brown Rice, but go ahead and make a larger batch and store it in the freezer ready for use as needed...Come on, let's make Carrot Brown Rice. 

Some additional thoughts on this recipe:

You will want to put the rice to soak, the evening before. Once soaked, drain very well. 

You may use more carrots if desired. Do grate them using the coarse holes on your box grater for best texture. 

I routinely cook 4 cups of rice, for us, this makes 4 packages of cooked rice to store in the freezer.

Note: the method I use is to freeze a package of cooked rice for each cup cooked. Effectively making each package of rice in the freezer, pretty much one cup of cooked rice. 

Ingredients needed for this recipe:

• brown rice
• carrots
• salt

You will also need the following:

• pressure cooker, electric or stovetop
• box grater
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• storage containers

Now we are ready to begin!

Carrot Brown Rice

by the seat of my pants

4 c brown rice, that has been soaked and drained

4 large carrots

1 1/4 t salt

4 1/2 c water

Wash and peel the carrots, grate coarsely. Place the grated carrots, drained rice, salt and water into the pressure cooker. 

Secure the lid, close the valve. If using an Instant Pot set timer for 25 minutes. Once cooking has completed let rest NPR for 10 minutes. Open the valve, letting the steam escape. Remove the lid, gently stir the rice, let cool, then package and freeze. 

For stove top models, bring to a boil, adjust heat to maintain even pressure, cook for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest NPR for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the pressure weight or oven the pressure valve, depending upon your model. Remove the lid, gently stir the rice, let cool, then package, into four containers and freeze. 

Storage options for Carrot Brown Rice. Store in the freezer for up to three months, let thaw before using. Once thawed, you may store in the refrigerator for up to three days. I do not recommend refreezing this dish. 

UPDATE:  For your convenience, a "copy and paste" version of Carrot Brown Rice has been included below. 

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Printable "copy and paste" version:

Carrot Brown Rice

by the seat of my pants

4 c brown rice, that has been soaked and drained

4 large carrots

1 1/4 t salt

4 1/2 c water

Wash and peel the carrots, grate coarsely. Place the grated carrots, drained rice, salt and water into the pressure cooker. 

Secure the lid, close the valve. If using an Instant Pot set timer for 25 minutes. Once cooking has completed let rest NPR for 10 minutes. Open the valve, letting the steam escape. Remove the lid, gently stir the rice, let cool, then package and freeze. 

For stove top models, bring to a boil, adjust heat to maintain even pressure, cook for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest NPR for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the pressure weight or oven the pressure valve, depending upon your model. Remove the lid, gently stir the rice, let cool, then package, into four containers and freeze. 

Storage options for Carrot Brown Rice. Store in the freezer for up to three months, let thaw before using. Once thawed, you may store in the refrigerator for up to three days. I do not recommend refreezing this dish. 

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