A staple of many diets is rice.  Having a good supply is essential to any meal plan.  It is easy to store and does not take up much space.

Making your own instant rice may be easier than you thought.  We keep a good supply of instant rice, mushrooms, corn, green beans and other staples in our pantry.  All it takes to revive them to their full flavor is water.

How to Make Instant Rice

You start with rice and cook it how you normally would.  For us this is the formula:

  1. 1 cup uncooked rice = 2 cups when cooked.  Begin with a pan big enough to hold twice the amount of rice you intend to cook.
  2. We use 4 cups of water to each cup of uncooked rice.
  3. We salt the water to add flavor to the rice.
  4. Cook the rice to the desired tenderness.  We look at the grains of rice.  When you can begin to see through the grains we taste them.  If they are the right tenderness we remove them from the heat and drain off the water.
  5. We spray off the excess starch to make the rice fluffy.
  6. Your rice is not ready for the next phase.

Prepare Your Dehydrator

Dehyrate foods for storageThere are so many different sizes of dehydrator that the amount of rice you cook must match the capacity of your dehydrator.  For us, we use a 12-tray dehydrator that holds a lot of product at once.  You will need to vary your cooked rice to match the capacity of your dehydrator.

  1. We line the trays of the dehydrator with parchment paper.  This prevents the rice from falling through the holes in the trays.  Some dehydrators do not require parchment paper as they have trays that have holes small enough that rice does not fall through.
  2. Spread the cooked rice across the trays so that they are evenly spread and not piled up.  This will help evenly dry the rice.
  3. We set our dehydrator to 135 degrees and run it for 12 – 14 hours.
  4. Remove the dehydrated rice and pour into a jar for vacuum sealing.

Vacuum Seal Your Dehydrated Rice

Vacuume seal foodsWe use a Food Saver brand vacuum sealer with a jar attachment.  This allows us to open and use some of the product and then reseal the jar.  We follow these steps.

  1. Pour the dehydrated rice into the jar.
  2. Shake the jar to allow the rice to settle into the jar.  Do not push the rice down as you may break up the rice and cause it to turn to powder.
  3. Wipe the lid of the jar and inspect for damage.
  4. Inspect the lid to make sure it is not bent or damaged.
  5. Place the jar attachment onto the jar and make sure the seal is firmly on the jar.
  6. Press the Cannister button and allow the Food Saver to remove the air from the jar.  The Food Saver will stop when it is done.
  7. Remove the jar attachment and turn off the Food Saver. (I sometimes forget to turn off the Food Saver)
  8. Screw on the band and place the jar on the shelf.

Using Your Dehydrated Instant Rice

We use our dehydrated rice in different recipes in our food storage and in our everyday meals.  Here are some easy ways to get the most out of your instant rice.

  • Beef tips with gravy over rice.
  • Chicken chunks with gravy over rice.
  • Broccolli cheese casserole with rice.

To rehydrate pour hot 1 cup of hot water over 1 cup of dehydrated rice and wait 10 minutes.  Your rice will pop back to its original fluffy status in just a few minutes.

Watch This Video To Learn How To Make Your Own No-cook Rice

Download The Recipe For No-cook Rice

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