One Pot Rice Dishes

One pot rice dishes are a God-send.

You know the scene. You’re home late. It’s dark and it’s cold. You have nothing planned for dinner… and you had takeaway last night. Can’t justify it again tonight.

If that sounds like you, then this is the article you didn’t know you needed.

Master the art of the one pot rice meal and you’ll have mastered some of the quickest and most comforting dishes you can whip up on a weeknight.

Everything cooks together, and washing up is kept to a minimum – another big plus.

What’s more, one pot meals are superstars for using up leftover veg in the fridge or tins and jars languishing at the back of your cupboards.

As a gluten-free vegetarian, I eat heaps of rice. It’s easy, cheap and is naturally gluten free. And you probably already know that rice flour is a staple in all kinds of gluten-free bread and pasta products.

In fact, I eat so much that I buy basmati rice in large 10kg bags that I get through over the course a few months. And so my one pot rice recipes usually use basmati. It’s easily available, easy to cook, and is versatile enough to work alongside a variety of cuisines.

I also go through jasmine rice in large quantities too, but that’s another story!

The best type of rice for one-pot meals

That said, most types of rice will work to a greater or lesser degree in one pot rice dishes. If you only have long grain white rice, brown rice, or even short-grain rice to hand, just check the packet instructions for a good idea of how to make the substitute.

For example, brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice, so make your tweaks accordingly. Increase your cook time, and add more delicate vegetables towards the end. Anything like green beans or broccoli that can easily get overcooked and sad shouldn’t be added at the start, in that case.

Check your packet instructions and add those ingredients ten minutes from the end of the recommended cooking period.

Alternatively, paella rice (and other short grain rices) will work here too. These one pot rice recipes are essentially pilafs, which have a common ancestor to paella.

However, you should always check the instructions on the packet. Paella rice would normally use a 2.5 or 3:1 ratio of cooking liquid to rice. The example recipe below calls for 2:1, which works great for basmati.

And remember, you can always add more water later if you haven’t used enough. But if you’ve added too much, then you’ll have soggy, mushy rice.

Rice – The Relevant History

A one pot rice recipe flavoured with spices and dried fruits all cooked in the same pot can be traced back to the 13th century. But in truth, this technique probably originated long before that – given how simple and delicious it is.

This concoction is the root of many Asian and Middle Eastern pilau dishes, Indian and Pakistani biryani dishes, and European ones like paella.

There are almost infinite variations of what is essentially the same principle – a one pot rice dish cooked with spices and other good things. 

Some are very specific national dishes: try to post a paella recipe online that doesn’t contain standardised ingredients and you’ll find out just how specific some of these dishes really are! But the thing about cooking is that the principle can be extended to include just about any ingredient you can think of.

So long as you adjust the recipe if needed, you can ensure everything cooks at the same time.

How To Build Flavour In One Pot Rice Dishes

In a nutshell, the aim of this game to harness the power of water. Use it to cook the rice, steam the vegetables, and transfer flavour into every bite.

That means building a flavourful base using aromatics and spices before adding the veg, rice and cooking liquid.

Use cumin, coriander and other Indian spices to make a pilau, or paprika for a hot and smoky dish.

Experiment with cashews and peanuts for an added crunch, add tofu or lentils for extra protein, or serve with other sauce-based dishes if you’re craving a fuller meal.

Alternatively, this is also an ingenious way of using up leftovers.

Imaging you’ve made my vegan chickpea stew, for example, and you still have a portion of it leftover. Then simply heat it up in a pan, add rice to it, add water (though you may need than the 2:1 ratio called for below if your stew already has sauce), and simmer until the rice is done. Then allow it to steam for at least 15 minutes to ensure you have fluffy rice.

The end result is a leftover meal that feels like a whole new dish cooked from scratch!

Step One – Onions, garlic and other deep flavourings

Almost all one pot rice recipes will start with some sort of aromatic base. This is our opportunity to add as much flavour as possible to start off with, and we’re going to take full advantage of it.

Start off by deciding what flavour profile you want. Are you cooking something light and bright to serve as a side dish? Or is this a true weeknight one pot meal?

Either way you’re likely going to want onions and garlic.

For a low-FODMAP one-pot meal, try flavouring the oil by frying onion and garlic before removing them. Or frying salt, herbs or (a small amount of) chilli to the oil before starting . Then simply carry on with the recipe as normal.

For Indian-style pilau recipes, add cumin or mustard seeds to the oil before the onions and garlic. Try adding some minced ginger along with the other aromatics, too. The white part of spring onions, will also work at this stage, as will cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom, and cloves.

The possibilities are endless. But effectively, this is the step where you build the deeper flavours of this dish with aromatics and any whole spices that won’t be ground into a powder.

Step Two – Hearty or firm veg and delicate flavourings

Once the aromatics are soft and the oil has been flavoured, we now add the more delicate flavours.

This is also when you’ll want to add your ground spices. These are more delicate flavourings than the seeds, sticks or pods we might have added in step one: ground cumin, turmeric and coriander, saffron or smoked paprika. 

Alternatively, this smoked paprika spice blend is also wonderful here.

And this is also when we add any veg that we think might take longer to cook than the rice itself – any root veg or potatoes, for example.

As always, check the instructions on your rice packet for cook times to get a better idea of how long it will take to get soft. That should then give you an idea of anything you’ll want to try to soften before we cook the rice.  

Similarly anything else that you think can handle the extra cook time can go in now as well – think chickpeas, beans, and tomatoes. Speaking of which, this is a great time to add tomato paste, too.

Bloom your ground spices in the oil before adding your heavier veg, if using. Then carry on to step three.

Step Three – Adding Rice and liquid

This is where we add the rice itself. Depending on what flavour profile you’re going for, this can be as simple as adding the rice, giving it a quick and gentle mix to incorporate it with all the other ingredients, and then adding your cooking liquid.

If this were a risotto, you might want to toast the rice in the oil first, before beginning the cooking process with some white wine or vermouth. Then adding the stock bit by bit, stirring all the time to get out the starch. (But please don’t mistake this for a risotto recipe! If that’s what you’re looking for, please go here instead!)

If it’s a pilau or paella, you shouldn’t stir at all after the first mix.

The liquid here can be a veg stock for some added depth of flavour. Or it can simply be water with some extra salt added.

Either way, this is the step where you’ll add it.

Step Four – Adding Delicate veg (if needed)

This isn’t something I do often, but if you want to add particularly quick-cooking item then you might want to do this when the rice is almost ready.

Steaming spinach or asparagus for example can take around three minutes or less, so when the rice has almost absorbed all of the water, now would be a good time to quickly add delicate veg before popping the lid back on again.

Step Five – Steaming the rice

Don’t skip this step. It’s not an added extra.

Steaming is the final part of getting the perfect texture in a one pot rice recipe. .

When the rice is done, turn off the heat but keep the lid on, and allow the rice to steam for 20 minutes before serving. 

This will give you fluffy rice where the individual grains don’t stick to each other. 

That’s the goal of a pilau, but obviously not with a risotto. Like I say, this is not a risotto recipe!

Similarly though, if making a paella-style dish, the final step will involve turning up the heat to achieve a caramelised layer on the bottom – but you’ll still want to cover and steam the rice afterwards. Though admittedly, not for the full 15 minutes.

Take a look at the below and tweak it to include whatever spices and fillings you want to make all manner of one pot rice dishes vegetarians will love!

A Basic One Pot Rice Recipe: