Hi, Five Weeknight Dishers. This is Krysten, in for Emily.
I just got a rice cooker, and I won’t shut up about it. In the evenings, I set it to steam rice as I finish work, and in the mornings, I fill it with steel-cut oats to cook as I get ready. I’ll add frozen berries just before I take my dog, Rudy, around the block, leaving them to warm gently in the residual heat. And, sometimes, I eat straight out of it. (I know.) What it provides is ease and comfort, something steady, warming and reliable during unsettling days.
You most definitely do not need a rice cooker for the recipes below: Most call for already cooked rice (stored safely, of course), or to prepare the rice as part of the dish. (Want to make better rice with just a pot? Here’s some help, and here are some thoughts on how to repurpose leftovers.)
Follow me on Instagram, where you’ll find me with Rudy, and, unsurprisingly, the rice cooker.
1. Sheet-Pan Fried Rice With Vegan ‘XO’ Sauce
This recipe from Hetty McKinnon not only puts those bags of frozen vegetables tucked in the back of the freezer to good use, it also calls for leftover cooked rice. Make a double batch of the easy sauce, which is flavored with mushrooms, garlic, ginger and soy sauce, and keep it for tossing noodles, or whatever else you’d like.
2. Chicken and Rice With Scallion-Ginger Sauce
Take it from Sue Li, and don’t peek before this dish is ready. Her recipe lets the rice simmer away as chicken breasts poach in the same pot, simultaneously yielding protein and carb. You will need at least one more bowl, of course, for the accompanying sauce that carries some heat from the jalapeño.
3. Sheet-Pan Jerk Salmon
Millie Peartree is so wonderful, and this recipe is only one illustration of how great she is. Salmon fillets are first coated with jerk seasoning paste and paprika, then run quickly under the broiler for a fast, flavorful meal. Rice, of course, would be perfect alongside.
4. Khichdi
This South Asian dish is beautifully versatile, with as many versions as there are families who make it. Tejal Rao’s recipe is on the firmer side, and is substantial enough as a meal with a little ghee and yogurt for heft, and cilantro and lime pickle for brightness. (Prefer it to be more like a stew? Try Samantha Seneviratne’s Instant Pot version.)
5. Dami-Yeh Gojeh Nokhod Farangi (Tomato-Egg Rice)
This is such a clever recipe from Naz Deravian, who hard boils eggs in the same pot as the rice. Doing so results in one less thing to wash, for a streamlined recipe that brings the bright, perfectly acidic tartness of tomatoes to winter.
