Mixed rice dishes are popular worldwide, made with rice and other ingredients like meat, vegetables, or beans. Rice is a staple crop in many cultures, and mixed rice can be served as a main course, appetizer, or dessert. Different types of rice are used, each with their own nutritional value. Adding beans or peas can close the nutritional gap in rice, which is low in lysine.
Mixed rice is a dish made up of rice and other foods, such as meat, vegetables, or beans. The combination of ingredients can provide enough nutrients to stand on its own as a meal. Since rice grows on every continent except Antarctica, a kind of mixed rice dish is part of the cuisine of many cultures around the world.
Many people think of mixed rice as a main course or appetizer, but it can be part of any meal. Rice salad often consists of cold rice, vegetables, and a vinegar dressing. For dessert, rice puddings are dishes in which eggs, milk, and sometimes fruit are added to the rice. Rice for mixed rice dishes can be boiled in water, steamed over boiling water, cooked in an oven, or cooked in water in the microwave.
Rice is the main agricultural crop of China, Southeast Asia and India, and mixed rice is frequently eaten in these areas. A Chinese breakfast is congee called juk in Mandarin. The bowls of hot rice are accompanied by side dishes of pork, pickled vegetables, peanuts, shallots, oil, garlic and chili peppers. India’s most popular meal is rice and dal – beans, lentils or peas – typically seasoned with chili powder, cumin and curry. Northern Thais eat rice with nam prik ong, a spicy pork, and tomato sauce.
Perhaps the most famous European mixed rice dish is Spanish paella. According to tradition, paella originated in the coastal city of Valencia, one of the rice-growing areas of Spain. The rice for the paella is seasoned with saffron and the toppings usually include shrimp or lobster, a Spanish sausage called chorizo, and peas. In Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, rice is often combined with raisins, onions and tomatoes and served cold and wrapped in vine leaves. This dish is known as dolmades.
Rice cultivation in the United States began in the 1600s in the coastal Carolinas, a low-lying, humid region in the east of the country. A traditional mixed rice dish from the area, Hoppin’ John, is reminiscent of West African rice dishes and probably traces its roots to US slaves. In addition to rice, Hoppin’ John’s ingredients are ham hocks, black-eyed peas, onion, and hot peppers. People who live in the Carolinas often eat Hoppin’ John with collard greens on January 1st.
Just as mixed rice meals vary around the world, so do the types of rice used in it. The two main varieties are indica, or long grain rice, and japonica, or short or medium grain rice. Indica rices stretch as they cook and are distinct grains when fully cooked; the japonica rises spread out and the grains stick together when cooking is complete. Indica rice types include basmati, grown primarily in Pakistan and India; Della, raised in the United States; and Taiwan Taichung Sen no. 10. Arborio, raised in Italy and the United States; Camargue, from the French region of Provence; and the rice for Japanese sushi are japonica.
The different varieties of rice are all complex carbohydrates, which have wholesome value as digestive aids and blood sugar stabilizers. One cup (185 grams) of uncooked rice contains about 13 to 15 grams of protein, although one cup of wild rice, a North American type, contains nearly 24 grams. One cup of rice also has about 600 calories and no fat. The nutrients in rice include thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), and iron. Rice contains little of the essential amino acid lysine, but adding beans or peas, which are rich in lysine, closes this nutritional gap.
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