Stop Cooking Rice In Water: Try This Flavor Bomb Liquid Instead

If you cook rice in water, you know it does the job. However, cook rice in miso broth, and you give it more savory depth than you knew it was even capable of — and that's before sauces or toppings get involved. Instead of plain rice that feels like it's only there to bulk the meal up, miso-infused rice is a little nutty, a little salty, and full of umami.

Before the rice even comes out of the pantry, you have miso broth to make: add 1 tablespoon of miso paste to 1 cup of water (or vegetable stock for even more flavor) and continue to add more miso and your chosen liquid to taste. You can use either white or red miso; white is a little milder and sweeter, so it's better for everyday cooking compared to red, which has more intense flavor. 

However, don't treat miso paste like a stock cube. Miso has a strong taste and contains a lot of salt, especially if you're using a darker variety, and you can definitely overdo it by mistake. It's also important to fully dissolve the miso paste into your liquid before you add it to your rice cooker or pot. Miso doesn't always melt easily, so you may end up with little clumps of undissolved paste in your rice if you forget this step.

At first glance, cooking rice in miso broth might sound unnecessary. After all, couldn't you just spoon a flavorsome sauce over plain rice afterward? The difference is a sauce can only coat the outside. Cooking rice directly in broth infuses the grains with flavor, and when the rice is already full of salt and umami before additions, such as soy sauce or sesame oil, even enter the picture, it creates a rice bowl or fried rice that is truly restaurant-worthy. Miso broth works with all types of rice as well — try it with white, brown, jasmine, basmati, and more.

Lastly, don't forget to keep the liquid ratio right for your rice. If the rice turns out too soft or hard for your liking, change the amount of broth you use next time. Of the many liquids besides water you can cook rice in, miso broth is a clear winner. Unlike cooking your rice in coconut milk, tomato broth, or plain stock, miso is a little more subtle. It doesn't completely change or overpower the rice, but enhances it massively.