Vegan Black Rice Breakfast



 

 

Vegan Black Rice Breakfast

Running out of oatmeal the other morning, I remembered a bag of black rice I’d bought recently. 

There is something about this inky, fragrant and chewy rice that makes it delicious when combined with coconut and peanuts. 

It is loaded with anthocyanins, the molecules that bring us reds and purples in our foods, and which are associated with improving everything from eyesight to our smarts.  Among many other benefits, eating a diet high in anthocyanins will give a nice glow to the skin, so if you’re feeling pasty faced and dull in these wintery times, eat up!

The anthocyanins make this gorgeous and healthy!

Although the cooking time for this breakfast is quite long, it doesn’t take much effort.  Also you can refrigerate the leftovers, and nuke them the next morning for a quick meal.

Many recipes recommend washing the rice beforehand, but I found that the water coming off mine was clear from the start.  (I bought mine in the bulk section of a very good organic grocery store.)  It won’t hurt to spend a couple of minutes washing it even if it’s already clean, and it’s always a good idea to wash it well if the water does run cloudy.  This will make about five servings:

1 cup black rice
2 ¼ cup cold water

3 cups mixed cherries, blueberries and blackberries (Organic but frozen, found at a certain giant supermarket)

1 tablespoon dried coconut (per serving)
1tablespoon unsalted peanuts (per serving)

1 teaspoon jaggery (optional and per serving)
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (optional and per serving)

½ sliced banana (optional and per serving)
½ cup almond milk (optional and per serving)

 

Find this organic mix at the Superstore.

Pour the rice and water into a pot with a tight fitting lid and place on high heat.  When it boils, lower the heat to the lowest setting, with the lid on, and leave to cook for forty minutes. 
Black rice will never be light and fluffy like its white cousins, so don’t worry when you need to take off the lid at the forty minute point, and stir in the frozen fruits.  (If you’re using fresh fruits, stir them in at the serving time.) 

Since these fruits were frozen, the pot needed another twenty minutes and I needed to crank up the heat a bit to thaw and warm the fruits through, keeping the lid on to raise the temperature.. 

The cherries, blackberries and blueberries are also high in anthocyanins, so this breakfast has quite the impact.  I swear I am glowing the most charming shade of pale bronze ever!  Normally I can be kind of pale blue at this time of year…

As this is served into bowls, add the coconut and peanuts.  I had lots left over.  The first morning when it was still moist and fresh I enjoyed this without the embellishments, but the next I was curious about how jaggery and lime juice would spark this up.  I longed for sliced banana as well, but didn’t have any.  As it was, the jaggery and lime enlivened it all the more, but the leftover rice had become a little stodgy, so a splash of almond milk was needed to lighten it up.  

Whether you’re eating this the same morning, or for leftovers, this breakfast looks gorgeous, tastes chewy and sweet, and it’s astonishingly healthy.  If you have the hour to wait around for it, it’s well worth the time spent.  How about this weekend?