The worry-free path
to brown rice

If you want to start an argument on the Internet — and who doesn’t? — all you have to do is declare the best way to cook rice. No matter which you pick, you’ll get “corrected” quicker than it takes to steam basmati. Many of your respondents will start with something like, “(Fill in ethnicity) here, and my mother did it this way, and we ate rice with every meal growing up.” You know, the assertion of an unassailable expertise that attempts to cast any difference of opinion or preference as, well, ignorance.

And it’s only a matter of time before: “Get a rice cooker already.”

The thing is, so many ways actually work, depending on what you’re starting with and what you’re after. Soak, if you want to speed up the steaming time. Rinse until the water runs clear, if you want to remove excess starch and end up with more individual grains. Less water for rice that’s drier, more for rice that’s sticker. Use a rice cooker. Use an Instant Pot.

Once you find your favorite way, you will probably also resist switching things up, because, well, it ain’t broke.

My favorite way is popular in India and similar to the Persian tradition, at least in part. For traditional Persian rice, you boil it until it’s swollen a bit but still firm, drain it, then return it to the stove with more water and cook over low heat to steam it. (And you can flavor it — hello, saffron water; hello, yogurt — and cook it slow and low until it forms the gorgeous, crispy tahdig on the bottom.) Instead, the method I follow boils the rice for much longer — until it’s basically done, and then returns it to the stovetop after draining to let it absorb any bits of extra water off the heat.

The advantages are many. First, you don’t have to measure. Use as much rice as you want, and enough water to cover it by 5 or 6 inches. No ratios to remember. No rinsing needed, because the boiling water is in effect doing that for you. (Honestly, rinsing isn’t as big of a deal with brown rice as white anyhow, because most of what you’re rinsing off is what’s created when rice is polished to make it white.)

The one downside is using a comparatively large amount of water, which is naturally a concern when water is becoming a scarce commodity in too many parts of the world, including the United States. But it’s certainly no more than if you rinse, rinse, rinse until the water runs (mostly) clear, and probably less. (Should I measure this sometime? Yes, I should!)

So I was already a fan of this method when I worked with one of my favorite recipe developers for “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking,” the ever-stylish Diana Yen, and she recommended the same for her wonderful Bibimbap With Spicy Tofu Crumbles, using brown rice.

Here’s basically how you do it:

• Bring a large saucepan or pot of water to a boil.

• Add the brown rice (short or long grain), reduce the heat to a gentle boil, cover with the lid slightly askew, and cook until the rice tastes just barely tender (or however you like it), about 30 minutes.

• Drain it — using a colander if you’d like, but you can also just use the pot lid to keep most, if not all, of the grains from going down the drain with the water.

• Return the pot to the stove, off the heat, cover tightly, and let the rice sit for about 10 minutes. (It will absorb the remaining water.)

It probably goes without saying, given everything else you know about me, that I’m a brown-rice guy. My love for it goes back to my college days, when in Austin, Texas, I was a regular at Les Amis Cafe, where I’d almost always get the black beans and brown rice with pico de gallo, a huge bowl that would often be my only meal of the day, for just a few bucks. I’ve made brown rice by steaming on the stovetop (an interminable wait if you’re cooking short-grain brown rice, but good), cooking under pressure in the Instant Pot (much shorter, still good) and through the boiling method.

The more grains I try — and I love so many — the more I have to admit that brown rice is my first love, my “number one” as they say on “Love Island.” But there is a little problem. Because of the very thing that makes it otherwise so much healthier — the fact that it still has its bran and germ intact — brown rice has a much higher level of arsenic, which concentrates in the germ, than white rice. The level varies widely by type of rice and where it’s from, but in general, growing the grain in flooded paddies allows the roots to take up so much more heavy metal such as arsenic. And arsenic’s toxicity has been linked to cancer, lung and heart disease, and in young children, harmful effects on the developing brain.

I know, I know: The arsenic level isn’t that big of a deal if you eat brown rice occasionally, or if you’re not an infant or pregnant or elderly person, right? But what about us plant-based eaters who make a pot of brown rice virtually every other week or two? And what about those of us who (cough-cough) are perhaps a few (cough-cough) years past our AARP membership eligibility even if we don’t quite yet consider ourselves elderly?

Yeah. So the first time I started worrying — er, thinking — about this was several years ago, and I took solace in the fact that my favorite brown rice, by the California company Lundberg, contains well under the limits for inorganic arsenic (the toxic form) set by regulatory agencies, as the company reports on its website. But the fact remains that some experts say there is no safe level of arsenic ingestion, and of course the problem gets worse the more arsenic is ingested.

Nonetheless, a recent study that made headlines for its reporting on the arsenic (and cadmium) levels found in hundreds of popular brands of rice bought in the United States gave me a little more comfort with this line: “If you eat brown rice, choose brands grown in California. These tend to have lower arsenic and cadmium levels.” That was in the second of its three suggested ways parents can reduce their children’s risk of arsenic ingestion from rice.

Guess what is the number-one way? Cooking rice like pasta! When you use 6 to 10 cups of water for each cup of rice, you can reduce the arsenic level by more than 50 percent. So if, like me, you start with a rice with less arsenic to begin with and then cook it like pasta, you should be in pretty good shape.

Another method has gotten attention in recent years, thanks in part to 2020 and 2024 studies published by Dr. Manoj Menon and colleagues at the UK’s University of Sheffield. The 2020 study recommended a cooking method they called the parboil/absorption method (PBA), in which the rice is cooked briefly in lots of boiling water, then drained and cooked again with a small amount of fresh water over low heat and covered (the standard absorption/steaming technique). The PBA method significantly reduces inorganic arsenic content in all types of rice, the researchers found.

But in 2024, when they directly compared PBA to the excess-water (EW) method that I favor, they found little difference between the two in terms of arsenic reduction. Both worked well. And they happen to both use the same amount of water — the PBA method in two stages, and the EW method in one. (I was hoping I would be able to recommend using that cooking water for something like watering plants, but as my go-to source on gardening, University of Maryland Extension specialist Jon Traunfeld, tells me, there’s just not enough research to justify that. Maybe … hair and skin care?)

Dr. Menon, by the way, understands just where I’m coming from, because he’s a brown-rice lover, too. “This is the dilemma everybody has, including myself,” he told me in a phone interview. “You have a lot of goodness in brown rice, but also more arsenic.” Until you boil it, that is.

What about nutrient loss from the boiling? It’s true that there is some with either method, but given that brown rice starts off with such a nutrient level three to 10 times that of white rice, Dr. Menon said, it emerges from the boiling with its nutritional superiority intact.

The upshot? Unless you’re a young child, or someone who eats so, so much more brown rice than is typical in the United States, you don’t really have much to worry about. Even if, it turns out, it’s as much a staple for you as it is for me. “An average person could eat 200 or so grams,” or about 7 ounces, “a day and still not have any issues,” Dr. Menon said.

Of course, another option is to just eat more alternative grains, such as farro, barley, bulgur and more. As I wrote earlier, I do enjoy all of them (perhaps farro more than the others), but brown rice just plain has my heart. And given what I now know, I can love it without the fear that it might not love me back.

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Recipe: Bibimbap with Spicy Tofu Crumbles

Bibimbap is the ultimate Korean comfort food and a great way to use up leftover vegetable side dishes like banchan. These bowls feature crispy tofu crumbles, carrots, spinach, and bean sprouts, but you should feel free to use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Remember that bibimbap means “mixed rice,” so perhaps the most important step is the one you take right before eating, when you vigorously stir together the ingredients in your bowl.

Makes 4 servings

Time: Weekday

Storage: Refrigerate the rice, tofu, and vegetables separately for up to 5 days.

• 1½ cups (278g) brown rice (short-, medium-, or long-grain)

• 3 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chile paste)

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari, divided

• 1½ tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, divided

• 1 tablespoon agave syrup or Wildflower Cider Syrup

• 1 (16-ounce/454g) block extra-firm tofu, cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) cubes

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 2 cups (220g) grated carrots

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste

• 7 cups (5 ounces/140g) baby spinach

• 2 cups (180g) fresh mung bean sprouts

• 4 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

• 4 scallions, finely chopped

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Bring a large saucepan or pot of water to a boil. Add the rice to the boiling water, reduce to a gentle boil, partially cover, and cook until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. Drain off the remaining water and return the rice to the pot. Cover tightly and let the rice sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the gochujang, 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, the rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil, and the agave syrup.

Spread a clean kitchen towel onto your workspace. Transfer the tofu cubes to it and gently use the towel to pat them dry.

In a cast-iron or other heavy skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add the tofu and remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce and cook, flipping occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Use a fork to crumble it into smaller pieces in the pan, and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until it gets crispy, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

In the same skillet over medium-high heat, add the carrots and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and season with ¼ teaspoon of the salt. Return the pan to the heat and add the spinach, cooking and stirring until it thoroughly wilts, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and the remaining 2 teaspoons sesame oil. Taste and season with more salt if needed. Transfer to the bowl with the carrots, keeping them separate.

Divide the rice into serving bowls and top each with separate piles of carrots, spinach, bean sprouts, and tofu. Drizzle the gochujang sauce over each bowl and sprinkle with the sesame seeds and scallions. Serve hot.

Recipe from “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” (Ten Speed Press, 2024). Copyright Joe Yonan.

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