Rice is one of the most popular foods in the world and a staple for much of the world’s population. There are countless dishes around the world that you can enjoy with rice.
Do you want some variety and are wondering what to eat with white rice? Here are some ideas you can enjoy.
White rice is an excellent and simple dish to enjoy by itself. It’s also an ingredient that can go a long way in making more complex and delicious recipes.
Everybody has a favorite dish they enjoy with white rice. These ideas and recipes can add some variety and flavor to your meals. Let’s check them out.
25 Dishes That Are Fantastic With White Rice
1. Veggie Fried Rice
This is one of the most loved dishes. What makes it even better is its versatility and the ability to match its flavor, texture, and style to what you prefer.
Whether you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or a carnivore, this dish can have something that goes right up your alley.
Cook veggie fried rice with your choice of vegetables, or add in some cheese, eggs, meat, Add some soy sauce for the umami touch and you’re all set.
Fried rice is one of the famous dishes from Chinese cuisine. If you know your way around the recipe, you’ll know why it’s so loved around the world.
2. Curried Turkey Soup
Here’s an amazing recipe you can enjoy. It’s good all around the year, but is especially meaningful the day after your Thanksgiving dinner.
Shredded cooked turkey is a key ingredient here, so if you’ve got some leftovers, this is a quick way to deal with it.
Of course, this soup isn’t just leftovers thrown together. It’s a delicious recipe with plenty of ingredients and some complexity. Plus, rice ties the whole thing up nicely and you get a wonderful dish.
3. Kadhi Chawal
This is one of the most popular dishes in Indian cuisine. Making this dish can be deceptively simple, or you could amp up the flavors with more complexity and ingredients. The word “chawal” in the name of the dish refers to cooked white rice.
The “kadhi” is cooked separately using yogurt, chickpea flour (from split chickpeas), and a few spices. This is supposed to have a thick consistency, and recipes may employ fritters to achieve this.
Once the rice and kadhi are ready, they can be served or mixed together for a lovely dish.
4. Steamed Veggies
Steamed veggies are quick to make and are quite healthy. Start with steaming some veggies of your choice – could be broccoli, carrots, or even sweet potatoes. Traditional potatoes are great too, just remember they’ll take more time for steaming.
In any case, once you have your choice of veggies steamed and ready, it’s time to mix them up with rice and enjoy your meal.
And don’t forget to add some salt and pepper to the veggies with steaming. Without some salt and pepper (maybe some other condiments and spices), this promises to be a very bland dish!
5. Sausages
Sausages are great companions for white rice. Both of these are versatile dishes that go with a whole lot of things, including each other. Prepare sausages the way you like and serve with a side of white rice.
Adding some sauce is a good idea to get some flavor boost. It also helps with adding moisture to the sausage and rice combo, which might be too dry without using a sauce.
6. Barbecue Something
BBQ food often goes well with white rice. There are a lot of foods that fit the bill. You could BBQ some veggies, mushrooms, or some meat. Serve with a side of white rice. It tastes great and the texture feels good.
Again, adding a sauce of your choice could be helpful in getting some moisture into the dish. Although it’s not necessary, it usually works well.
7. Grilled Chicken
Chicken cut into thin slices and grilled tastes heavenly. Boost the flavor with some seasoning to get the most out of the dish. Serve with a side of white rice.
Seasoning the chicken is a good way to add some flavor, otherwise the combo with rice might feel too bland. You could also prepare a sauce to go along with the dish. This adds flavor and moistness to the recipe.
8. Beef Steak
Steak and rice can be an interesting combo. A steak with a side of white rice tastes great and the meal packs nutrition too.
You could enjoy this combo as is, but adding a sauce really helps with the overall flavor and adds some moisture. Salad as a side dish makes this a well-rounded meal.
9. One-Pot Cilantro Lime Chicken And Rice
Why cook things separately when you can prepare a dish in a single pot? One-pot recipes are great as they are simpler, yet delicious. The ingredients get time to absorb flavors and the result is a dish that’s pretty well-rounded.
In this recipe, the lime and cilantro add some freshness and zing to the meal, while rice and chicken provide the main course.
It’s better to go with fresh cilantro over dried to get a better flavor for the recipe. Of course, if cilantro’s flavor doesn’t work for you, it’s acceptable to consider a substitute.
10. One-Pot Enchilada Rice
Here’s another one-pot recipe that’s simple and packed with flavor. This is a vegetarian-friendly dish. Rice forms the base, while the enchilada cheese forms a delicious topping. You could also add an avocado on top for some nice texture and balanced flavors.
11. Ginger And Beef Stir Fry
Here’s an interesting recipe that’s got some versatility. Plus, it’s flavorful and absolutely delicious. The dish shows off thin slices of tender beef, backed by red carrots that complete its look. Ginger provides some flavor for the base.
You could put this dish on a base of white rice for balancing the flavors as well as enjoying some great taste. Incidentally, mashed potatoes also work with this dish and can complement, or even replace, the white rice base.
12. Burritos
Burritos are worth enjoying for a quick snack. Or, give them a side of white rice and make it a complete meal. The beans in burritos are great companions to white rice and the overall flavor and texture gets it right.
If you want something of a deeper flavor, consider using an alternative to burritos. Chimichangas and burritos are very similar, though the former offers some moisture with its sauces. This makes it a good option to serve along with white rice.
13. Lettuce Wraps
Nutritious and delicious, this combination has a lot going for it. Lettuce wraps go amazingly well with sauteed chicken, white rice can further amp up the combo. The combo looks great with lettuce wraps holding the chicken and balanced with some white rice.
14. A Sweet Rice Pudding
Whoever said that rice dishes always need to be salty or savory? Get yourself a rice pudding. It’s amazing and a good way to make use of leftover white rice. The recipe is fairly simple as well.
The basics are to add rice to a saucepan along with some milk. There’s going to be quite some milk here, but it doesn’t need to be excessive. Add some sugar and let the combo cook for a while. Stir occasionally.
Cook until the combination is hot and sweet, but not runny. If you didn’t add sugar earlier (or prefer a different alternative) top this with some brown sugar and maybe a bit of cinnamon.
15. Beans
You know what works wonders with rice? Beans!
Rice and beans is a combo that works throughout the world and with all kinds of cuisines. Heck, you could even pour canned beans on rice and it will taste great. Of course, if you want more of a twist and flavor from your meal, you can follow any amount of recipes from the cuisine of your choice!
As I said, rice and beans work great together. What kind of beans, you ask?
Well, pretty much all beans will go with a rice dish. Red beans, kidney beans, lima beans, black beans, or any other beans – take your pick!
16. Beans, Cheese Burritos, And Rice
There you have it; three foods that are pretty much made for each other. Beans are wonderful with burritos – you’re likely to find beans in your burrito as well. Beans also go well with rice. On that note, burritos and rice are a good combo too!
This recipe is also rather quick and easy to make. Put together the ingredients and let the microwave do its magic for a few minutes. The meal is ready to enjoy!
17. Sticky Rice Balls With Mango Stuffing
Still got a sweet tooth for rice? This recipe should work for your cravings.
Sticky rice is a popular dish in Thailand, though it’s fairly popular in Southeast and East Asia in general. And how do you make this delicacy even better? Stuff a mango in it.
Genius!
The sweet mango in sticky rice helps with the texture and also gives the dish an amazing flavor. Working your way through the rice to reach the glorious mango filling feels so rewarding.
Though the recipe is simple, it can take a bit of work if you’re not familiar with the cuisine. But it’s all worth the effort.
18. Shrimp Tempura Rice Burger
This recipe takes inspiration from Japanese cuisine, though it’s not exactly Japanese. The stars here are two rice cakes, which act as the bun of this burger. Between these two cakes, you can add other ingredients like shrimp, lettuce, or veggies.
A generous dose of the sauce of your choice helps keep the flavor to your liking. It’s a quick and simple meal.
19. Lentils With Rice And Caramelized Onions
Cook lentils of your choice and mix them with white rice and add a topping of caramelized onions. This is an excellent meal for vegans and vegetarians and is packed with a whole lot of protein.
If you know your way around different cuisines, try the Indian way of cooking lentils to match the recipe. Most of these recipes are quite hearty and full of flavor. Besides, given the popularity of lentils in Indian cuisine, you can expect delicious results.
20. Lamb Biryani
Lamb biryani is another excellent dish from Indian cuisine that uses white rice to make an amazing dish. This recipe can be fairly complex and has a whole lot of layers and ingredients to work with.
You can find lamb, yogurt, almond, raisins, and a whole lot more to go along with this recipe. Or, take a simpler path and reduce the complexity for an easier, yet wonderfully flavored meal.
21. Sushi And Its Variants
We can’t have a list of white rice recipes without including sushi, just like you can’t cook sushi without vinegared white rice. The sushi recipe usually calls for spreading vinegared rice on a toasted seaweed base called nori.
Top this with fillings and you can roll it up to make a sushi roll or hand roll. If you’re familiar with the cuisine, this takes just a few minutes to accomplish.
There’s always room to experiment though, so if you want a sushi roll more suited for western palate, you can experiment with different types of sushi rolls to see what floats your boat.
22. Onigirazu
Let’s look at another recipe from Japanese cuisine that makes creative and tasteful use of white rice. Onigirazu is something of a rice sandwich, though it appears partly inspired by sushi.
The recipe uses two blocks of cooked rice in the shape of bread slices. Cover the slices with your choice of ingredients as if to make a sandwich. Conventionally, this includes salmon, sesame seeds, or lettuce.
Once you’re ready, wrap it up in some toasted seaweed to make a sandwich that’s convenient to carry and a treat to the tastebuds.
23. A Homemade California Roll Sushi Bowl
Conventionally, sushi doesn’t get served in a bowl. But then again, California Roll is more of a foreigners’ twist to the conventional Japanese sushi.
The California roll sushi bowl takes things a step further. Rather than putting things in a roll, this one sees them in a bowl.
The basic idea is to add all the sushi ingredients like rice, fillings, and maybe even some seaweed in a bowl. Mix it all up and maybe top it with some sauce to make the best of the dish!
24. Brazilian Pork & Black Bean Stew (Feijoada)
Coming from Brazilian cuisine, this recipe can serve as a highlight! While Brazil offers some foods and recipes that are immaculate, pork and black bean stew is worthy of special mention.
Called feijoada, this stew involves a serving of black beans and pork over a base of white rice. The black bean and pork dish has a texture similar to chili and with rice added to the mix, it gets even better!
25. Soups
Rice works wonders with soup. A whole lot of soups and broths can work with rice depending on the taste and flavor you crave.
White rice doesn’t necessarily have to go into the soup. You can serve the soup with a side of white rice. This way, it’s easier to manage the texture and flavor of what you eat.
Conclusion
Global cuisine is your oyster if you’re considering what to eat with white rice. This dish is a global staple and enjoyed in various parts of the world, with their own cuisine and variations. Try a few suggestions listed above for the sake of some variety and an exercise in creativity.