White Rice Alternative
White rice is a staple food. It’s not bad for you. White rice is a refined grain which means it’s lost its bran and germ, it’s low in fiber. And I like fiber, it’s good for digestion, heart health and blood sugar control. While I wore a constant glucose monitor for a month, I was able to track my glucose and see waves and spikes and which foods caused it. White rice was at the top of that list! Nothing would spike my blood sugar like a rice bowl. I’m mostly giving up on white rice, I’m not saying that I’m never going to have it. And I’m also not saying that you should stop! You do you! I am just giving you some other options! If you like this recipe, be sure to check out this one too! and this one!
A Couple Options
What are the other options? I have found my favorite, but I want to tell you about a few. I know a lot of people like cauliflower rice, it’s not my favorite. Barley is also a good, healthy alternative. I have it from time to time, it has a chewier texture and a nuttier flavor. My favorite alternative for white rice is quinoa. It is super easy, it cooks up just like rice. It’s a seed, it’s gluten free just like rice. But much higher in protein, double in fact. It’s a complete protein which means it has all the essential amino acids.
My Favorite Option
The quinoa taste is pretty mild so it works in a bowl. I’ll teach you a quick quinoa bowl recipe. All you have to do is heat up one cup of water to a boil. Add in some salt, and half a cup of quinoa. I cover and let that simmer for about fifteen minutes. Then I cubed up some tempeh (you can use a protein of your choice). Heated up some oil, browned the tempeh on all sides. Then I added in some onion and broccoli and cooked it together until it was all nice and brown. I removed the broccoli.
And at this point I take the quinoa off the heat and make a quick sauce. I just used a vegan hoisin sauce, with a little soy sauce, let that cook down for about thirty seconds. Add some rice vinegar to thin out all the sauce. Then it’s time to plate! I’ve been adding arugula to everything, so I start my plate with that, topped on the quinoa, then the tempeh, broccoli, shaved some carrots, and added some micro greens. Something else really neat you can do with quinoa is toast it. It puffs like popcorn.
Taste Test
Just toss it dry into a dry pan over a medium/high heat and keep moving around until it toasts and puffs. Some of it will puff some won’t but either way you are going to end up with a nice crispy little crunchy topping! Add that over top of the bowl and boom! It’s delicious and high in protein! This is a perfect rice bowl substitute. This was so quick and easy you should give this quinoa bowl recipe a try! Watch the full video here!
Why I’m Giving Up White Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- .5 cup quinoa
- tempeh
- oil
- onion
- broccoli
- vegan hoisin sauce
- soy sauce
- rice vinegar
- arugula
- carrot shavings
- micro greens
Instructions
- Boil water, add salt and quinoa, cover it and let sit for 15 minutes.
- Cube tempeh, heat up some oil and brown tempeh on all sides. Add in broccoli and onions, cook together until it's nice and brown.
- Remove the broccoli. Take quinoa off the heat.
- Add hoisin sauce and soy sauce to tempeh, stir, and let it cook down for 30 seconds. Add rice vinegar to thin it out.
- Add arugula to plate then quinoa, tempeh, broccoli, shaved carrots, micro greens and toasted quinoa. Enjoy!