Rice Balls – Easy 2 Steps

Rice balls are an easy appetizer or side to roll in the fun and make a plate festive. You need 3 ingredients: white rice, bread crumbs, and olive oil.

Jasmine or regular white rice you find in grocery stores do not need egg to hold together when you make sticky rice.

So, step one is you can make sticky rice with just water and rice.

The best way is in a double broiler because that will keep each piece of rice cooking consistently.

The setup is a cooking safe dish or mug inside a pot of water.

Then add your rice to the inside vessel and water to the top.

Cook on medium heat with a lid-on, adding water as it cooks down. Check the water level often as rice gets thirsty quickly within minutes. So it’s best to be around the kitchen. 😊

The secret to perfect sticky rice is keeping it moist to the end. But at the very, very end (last few minutes) you wan’t the water to all absorb.

It’s no tasty fun if you have a swamp of water at the top or bottom, or mushy rice.

You want fluffy and sticky rice. And if you’ve added more rice than your vessel can hold as it grows in height, then take some rice out and cook separately (maybe into your edible bowl today). 🥣

Sticky rice is different than fluffy rice with olive oil (recipe below).

After you finish cooking the rice that can take about 45 minutes to an hour depending on your heat and cooking vessel setup, then form into balls. They should stick by themselves.

If they don’t, cook a little more until the water is absorbed.

Step two is toast the bread crumbs (like crunchy Panko crumbs) with a little oil drizzle in a sauté pan on the stove.

Use olive oil to be healthy.

Turn down the heat and roll the rice balls directly in the bread crumbs.

Tip: There’s no need to create other bowls you need to dip in and then clean up.

Oil is also easier to clean in a sauce pan (than glass or plastic).

So there you go… you have ready-made easy to pick-up-by-hand rice balls as sides or appetizers for your meals!

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Rice Balls - Easy 2-Step Method

All you need is a sauté cooking pan, cooking pot and heat-safe bowl.

Course Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets.

Ingredients

• white rice
• Panko bread crumbs
• olive oil

Instructions

• Make the sticky rice.
• Toast the bread crumbs in oil.
• Roll the rice into balls and then in the bread crumbs directly from the pan.

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Fluffy Rice

Cooking rice directly in a cooking pot can leave you with inedible scorched, overcooked rice, or sticky rice if you're not watching closely. This consistent "dummy-proof" Fluffy Rice Method will actually free you up so you do not have to watch your rice every few minutes and worry about if it will come out edible for your meals. This method is inspired by my mom's white rice that always was consistent for dinner. She didn't add oil, but that's an option for a more moist, fluffy rice.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, Chinese

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

• microwave/oven-safe soup size mug
• cooking pot with lid larger than mug

Ingredients

• white rice or rice of choice (brown or wild rice for whole grain healthy)
• water
• olive oil, drizzle (optional)

Instructions

• Add tap water to the pot that goes up half way up the outside of the mug.
• After rinsing rice, add rice to the mug. Add up to 2/3 to the top of the mug (leaving 1/3 of the mug unfilled).
• Then, add filtered water to the rice-mug leaving about 1/2" from the brim top so it doesn't boil over.
• Cook on medium (or medium-low) heat with covered lid for about 30 minutes or until rice is soft, almost cooked done to liking, and water is almost absorbed. Add a little filtered water as needed to the rice to finish off cooking (usually a few additional minutes). Add olive oil drizzle if desired for moist and separated rice but NOT sticky rice.