Creamy Rice Porridge

Occasionally I love a creamy rice porridge for breakfast. My kids love it too, especially in winter. It’s the perfect winter warming comfort food for breakfast. The recipe below can be used for any type of gluten-free grains but white rice is our favourite closely followed by oats. 

As detailed in this blog, grains should ideally be properly prepared (such as by soaking overnight) before cooking them in order to make them more digestible and nutritious. 

I like to add in egg yolks, butter and cream as nutrient-dense bombs into my porridge to provide a creamy, super nutritious and satiating bowl (otherwise grains alone are too glycemic and leave me hungry a couple hours later). I like my porridge quite milky as I find grains can be very drying. If this is too much liquid for you, simply reduce the volume of milk to 2 cups.  

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice

• 3 cups full fat milk

• 1.5 tablespoons butter (or coconut oil)

• 2 tablespoon cream

• 3-5 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder or 1 drop Young Living cinnamon bark essential oil

• 1 drop Young Living vanilla oil

• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg or 1 drop Young Living nutmeg essential oil

Toppings:

•  chopped banana

• a handful of fresh berries

• a scattering of goji berries 

• a scattering of raw cacao nibs

• a handful of coconut flakes

• a handful of gluten-free activated muesli

• dusting of raw cacao powder

• dustings of cinnamon powder 

• a drizzle of raw honey

Directions:

1. Soak rice overnight in a bowl of water (add enough water so that the rice is well covered).  
   

2. Strain (and discard the soaking water) and rinse rice in filtered water. 
   

3. Transfer rice to a saucepan, add milk, and cook on high heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk just begins to simmer then immediately lower the temperature and cook, covered, stirring occasionally until the rice is well-cooked and completely soft (approx. 10 mins). Be careful not to allow the milk to boil. 
   

4. Turn off heat and stir through the rest of the porridge ingredients. 
   

5. Divide between 3 bowls and serve with any one or more of the suggested toppings.

Serves 3.

Variation: Instead of rice, use any other gluten-free grains such as oats, millet, amaranth or quinoa and reduce the volume of milk to 2 cups instead of 3 cups.  

Veggie-Packed Fried Rice (and why I prefer white rice over brown rice and why I like to eat my rice cold)

My kids LOVE fried rice. Although I try to limit grains as much as possible in favour of more nutrient-dense foods to fill their little bellies, we still do have grains occasionally IF they are properly prepared through soaking, sprouting or fermenting. This proper preparation process adhered to by all traditional societies the world over is important to remove anti-nutrients (such as phytates) found in all grains (as well as nuts, seeds and legumes) that can cause digestive havoc (such as trapping the nutrients found in grains, irritating the lining of the gut making it leaky, and destroying enzymes needed to digest out food). Proper preparation reduces phytates thus liberating the nutrients therein and making the grains more digestible and nutritious (as well as more delicious). 

Rice tends to be favoured as a grain of choice in the ancestral health community because it is doesn’t contain any gluten (the same can be said for buckwheat, amaranth, millet and quinoa). Gluten is another anti-nutrient but, unlike phytates, it is not removed through proper soaking preparation and thus stays in the grain. Gluten can be a difficult protein to digest and for some it can lead to non-celiac gluten sensitivity or in more extreme cases celiac disease which is a full blow auto-immune condition triggered by gluten. Strict proponents of the Paleo diet would say we should avoid gluten grains (wheat, rye, oats and barley) altogether because the risk of gluten causing a leaky gut is too great (and a leaky gut = digestive distress and is one step away from auto-immunity) . For those who do react after they consume gluten then this is sound advice. Life is too short to feel crappy after a meal. For those who do not notice any symptoms after eating gluten, whether or not you should eat it is a matter of great debate and often comes down to your lifestyle choices. You may (or may not) be influenced by whether or not you have the celiac gene which can be determined via a blood test  (and if you do, you might consider it too risky to tempt fate with gluten-containing grains). As a side note if you DO wish to avoid gluten in entirety, it might surprise you to know that grains are not the only place where gluten can be found- there are numerous hidden sources of gluten in non-food everyday household objects as set out in this article here. For those with leaky gut and autoimmunity then all grains (whether they contain gluten or not) are best avoided until the gut wall is fully healed. 

Ok, so back to our friend, rice. White rice contains much less phytates than brown rice because the outer husk has been removed. The outer husk is where most of the phytates are located, so brown rice contains much more phytates that white rice. For almost 10 years as a macrobiotic vegetarian, I was eating brown rice thinking it was healthier than white rice (anything brown must be healthier, right?!?) but as it turns out the opposite was true. Go figure. Even though white rice contains less phytates than brown rice I still do properly prepare it through soaking it overnight then straining and rinsing it to remove as much of the phytates as possible. You can think of white rice as glucose – a source of carbohydrates that (unlike fructose) is well absorbed by the body and taken up as fuel by our cells. Our bodies can handle glucose in moderate amounts. Obviously consumption of too much glucose (in any form) for your energy expenditure will lead to weight gain but in the context of a balanced diet (i.e. along with the consumption of protein and fats from natural sources and above ground veggies rich in phytonutrients) and an active lifestyle,  the occasional or even frequent consumption of white rice shouldn’t be anything to be worried about for those who do not suffer digestive issues. 

Hopefully the above background will explain why I soak rice in this recipe and why I choose white rice over brown rice. People often ask me which TYPE of white rice to buy – short grain, basmati etc. I don’t think the type of white rice really matters. I typically buy short grain white rice as it is the most versatile.  And the reason why I cook rice in bone broth (aka stock) instead of water is because it is a more nutrient-dense way of eating rice – all of the minerals and other goodness in the bone broth get absorbed into the rice, giving you more bang for your buck. Not to mention that it is a hell of a lot more tastier! Why I prefer to eat this meal as leftovers cold the next day is set out at the end.  

Ingredients:

1 cup white rice
2 cups (500ml) chicken bone broth (stock)
1 onion, diced
1 packet of bacon, diced
3 tablespoons natural fat of choice (eg butter, coconut oil, beef, tallow, ghee)
1 punnet (150g) mushrooms, sliced
1 cups frozen peas
1 cup of broccoli florets, finely chopped  
1 cup of cauliflower florets, finely chopped  
1 carrot, grated
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
5 cardamon pods, ground up in a spice/nut/coffee grinder
1 cinnamon quill
1 teaspoon unrefined salt

Directions:

Soak the rice from the day before in a bowl with plenty of filtered water. The following day strain the rice and place in a saucepan with 2 cups of chicken stock (or if no stock, use filtered water).

Cover and bring to boil, then gently simmer until all liquid has been absorbed. The rice should be cooked through and tender.  

In a large frying pan or wok, melt natural fat of choice (I like to use 50/50 butter and coconut oil for this recipe) and sauté the onions and bacon on low heat for a couple minutes.

Add turmeric powder, ground cardamom pods and 1 whole cinnamon quill. Sautee for 5 - 10 minutes or until onions become translucent and golden brown. 

Add mushrooms, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot, and sauté until veggies are tender, stirring occasionally.  Season with salt.

Add cooked rice to the frying pan and combine well. Garnish with coriander leaves. 

For a more Asian infusion, omit the turmeric and season at the end with a drizzle of Red Boat fish sauce, tamari and lime juice, and a scattering of chilli flakes and a handful of activated cashews. 

Serves 6.

View fullsize

View fullsize

I purposely made the quantity of this recipe substantial so that there will be plenty of leftovers. Leftovers are terrific eaten the following day cold. Rice that has been cooked and cooled for 24 hours is a form of resistant starch. Resistant starch is one type of prebiotic i.e. food for the good bacteria already in our gut that keeps these little critters alive, healthy and kicking. Unlike cooked and heated rice, cooked and cooled white rice is not digested in the stomach or small intestine, reaching the colon (the large intestine) intact.  Thereby “resisting” digestion.  This explains why resistant starch does not result in spikes in either blood glucose or insulin, and why we do not obtain significant calories from resistant starch.  Once resistant starch reaches the large intestine, bacteria attach to and digest, or ferment, the starch.  This is when we receive the benefits of resistant starch. You can read more about resistant starch in one of my previous blog posts here.

Crab Bisque Recipe

Crab (and crustaceans generally) are a powerhouse of minerals, especially calcium. I try to eat wild seafood twice a week at a minimum due to its high nutrient content. One of the 10 biggest mistakes I made when I transitioned almost a decade ago from a macrobiotic vegetarian diet to an ancestral/ traditional wholefoods diet was to eat red meat to the exclusion of other meats every day in a bid to drastically re-mineralise my body (especially my iron levels) with seafood constantly falling off the radar. I also see this a lot in my private health coaching sessions with clients. For this reason I have idiot-guided myself to eating seafood on 2 designated nights of the week to ensure that this superfood is given its rightful place in my diet.  

When we think seafood, most people will opt for fish. Here is a recipe I crafted to incorporate more crab into my diet. The flavours are intensely rich and satisfying. It makes for a stunning entrée at dinner parties or even a weekday dinner served with greens and oysters. I hope you enjoy this soup as much as I and my kids do! 

---

Ingredients:

• 500g cooked crab meat (sold in containers at seafood shops)

• 500ml wild fish stock

• 2 small potatoes (approx. 350g), grated or diced

• 1 onion, chopped

• 15g garlic, chopped

•  1/3 cup (70g) cream

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 3 tablespoons white wine

• a few sprigs of fresh thyme, plus extra for garnishing

• ½ teaspoon unrefined salt

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• extra virgin cold pressed olive oil

---

Directions:

1. Melt butter in large saucepan. Add potato, onions and garlic and sauté on low heat for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

2. Add fish stock, Worcestershire sauce, wine, salt and thyme and gently cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until potatoes and onions are tender.

3. Add cream and blend with hand held/ stick blender until mixture is very smooth.

4. Add crab meat and continue to gently cook (do not simmer) until crab meat is heated through.

5. Ladle into 4 bowls, garnishing each bowl with a few sprigs of fresh thyme and a drizzle of olive oil.

Serves 4