Brown rice is whole rice with a lot of carbs and nutrients jam-packed into each small grain. Essentially, they have more nutrients than some of the other rice types and even some staple foods. Comparatively, these grains can also be used for more purposes than normal rice.
You can use brown as a staple food, especially if you are trying to live healthier or lose weight. They can control and regulate cholesterol as well as give you a more wholesome and fuller experience. This also happens to be one of the main reasons for its inclusion into keto diets.
If you want more information about rice and how you can include it in a keto diet, then you should get a Keto cookbook. To improve your lifestyle, you can even get some other healthy keto additions, like Keto chips and packaged Keto snacks.
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Why Should You Soak Brown Rice?
Brown rice is a healthy addition to the tables of people around the world. They can give you a balanced meal, especially if you combine them with some other nutritious servings. However, there are also a few drawbacks to using brown rice.
The first is their cooking time, which can bring even seasoned cooks to tears. The second is the high levels of arsenic found in brown rice. Finally, to top it all off, we also have a phytic acid concentration in brown rice.
Phytic acid, in particular, can become quite problematic because it makes everything more indigestible. By soaking brown rice, you can reduce arsenic and phytic acid levels, making your brown rice more digestible and nutritious. Additionally, soaked rice is easier and quicker to cook.
How to Soak Brown Rice
Soaking brown rice is pretty much like soaking any other grain or seed. You will need to keep the rice soaked in enough volume of the soaking medium, all in a non-reactive medium. The main goal is to let your brown rice absorb as much water as possible while retaining its shape.
The method, as explained above, is pretty simple. Wash the rice, put them in a bowl and pour in water. That’s all you need to do to keep arsenic levels low and your digestive system working perfectly.
Soaking Brown Rice in Water
The main medium used to soak brown rice is water because of its detoxifying effect. You will need enough to cover your rice and a lot of time to wait. Normally keeping your rice soaked in the water for an hour should make it more nutritious and safer to consume.
Some people soak it even longer because the longer you soak brown rice, the more hydrated they become. The more hydrated your brown rice is, the less toxic they are.
How Long To Soak Brown Rice
The length of the soaking period for brown rice depends on the time that you have. Normally brown rice can be soaked after about 90 minutes, but we recommend soaking them for longer periods to make them easier to digest and more nutritious.
People who want brown rice purely for the taste and the nutritional benefits should go for the overnight soak. We recommend this because it reduces the arsenic levels considerably compared to the shorter soak methods.
Can You Soak Brown Rice Overnight?
Like most ground plants, rice collects and stores a significant amount of arsenic, according to some recent studies. Because of modern fertilizers and pesticides sprayed on crops, this store of arsenic is increasing.
Also, as stated above, Phytic acid can be prevalently found in brown rice. Both arsenic and phytic acid can be decreased significantly by soaking them. Overnight soaks are ideal for brown rice if you can keep the temperature regulated; otherwise, you’ll just end up with mush.
You should cover your rice with a layer of water and let them soak for 6 to 8 hours in an overnight soak. If you are in a hurry, then you can use the other soaking methods.
How to Soak Brown Rice Fast
Like the rest of the rice family, there isn’t a quick soak method because brown rice already soaks quickly. In this case, why would you even look for a different, quicker soaking method when you already have a convenient soaking method.
There are other places where you can cut the time it takes to prepare brown rice. One such instance is the cooking process, where you can use different, more efficient cookers to reduce cooking time. The best cookers out there are the Elite Gourmet ERC2010B Electric Rice Cooker and the Panasonic Rice Cooker.
Sources
- Kitchen Accessory Buying Guides
- Kitchen Appliance Buying Guides
- Kitchen Cookbook Buying Guides
- Kitchen Cookware Buying Guides
- Kitchen Pantry Food Buying Guides
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