Rice Stuffings: Savory Fillings for Vegetables and More
As a stuffing base, rice has numerous virtues. It helps stretch more expensive ingredients, such as meat, shrimp or portobello mushrooms. It absorbs the flavor of its wrapper—grape leaves, bell peppers, chicken, boneless quail—to make an especially tasty filling. And it can head in any ethnic direction.
Roasted Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Rice, Parmesan, Thyme, Oregano and Bacon. View the recipe or watch the video.
For all these reasons, cooks around the globe have found infinite ways to use rice as a stuffing. Many of these dishes qualify as comfort food, the "good home cooking" that many diners, paradoxically, enjoy away from home these days. (Why else does meatloaf sell so well?) Consider whether some of the classics or some creative new ideas might fit into your operation.
- Greek stuffed cabbage with rice, lamb, cinnamon and avgolemono (lemon-egg sauce)
- Turkish dolmas with rice, pine nuts and currants
- Turkish rice-stuffed peppers with pine nuts, currants and mint
- Chinese duck stuffed with rice, Chinese sausage and dried mushrooms
- Lebanese eggplant/zucchini/peppers stuffed with rice, lamb, tomato and cinnamon
- Sicilian cappuccetti di riso: cabbage rolls stuffed with saffron risotto and baked
- Syrian roast baby chicken stuffed with rice, currants, pine nuts, almonds and lemon zest, with a basting sauce of olive oil, lemon juice and allspice
- Moroccan squab or turkey stuffed with rice, raisins, cinnamon, sugar and almonds and ginger and braised with onions, saffron and honey
- Portobello mushrooms stuffed with rice, pancetta and pine nuts
And remember, rice stuffings can be cold, too:
- Make a rice salad with baby shrimp, capers and pimiento and stuff a hollowed tomato.
- Stuff an avocado half with a rice, crab, tarragon and avocado salad. Mix black or wild rice and white rice for impact.
- Boil bell peppers briefly to soften, then halve, hollow and fill with a brown rice, black beans and corn salad.
Whether you go classic or contemporary, delicious rice-filled dishes will delight customers, add interest to your menu, and benefit your bottom line.
For yet another stuffing idea, watch Chef Lars Kronmark prepare Roasted Portobello Mushrooms Stuffed with Rice, Parmesan, Thyme, Oregano and Bacon.