.Parboiled Rice Vs Basmati Rice

Parboiled Rice Vs Basmati Rice

Rice has always been a popular food in my household because of how easy it is to prepare. All you have to do to prepare rice is clean it, place it into the rice cooker, pour water, and then start the rice cooker. You then get rice that complements meat or vegetable dishes well. You can even just use some basic condiments to flavor rice and eat that by itself!

What most people might not know is that there is a lot of variety in rice. For example, you might not have ever heard about parboiled rice or basmati rice. Luckily for you, I did a lot of research into them and I wrote about my findings in detail for this article. You’ll definitely be more informed by the time you are done reading this article.

The last thing I will say is that most people will be surprised. Most people would probably think that there aren’t any major differences between rice but there are. Depending on what rice you use, the cooking process can be completely different. That by itself should pique most of your interest!

So I hope you are excited for my article Parboiled Rice Vs Basmati Rice!

What’s the difference?

Parboiled Rice

Parboiled rice requires three steps that you need to do in order to get the maximum benefit. You need to soak it then you steam it and then you dry the rice. You want to do this because it would help improve the nutritional benefits of the rice. There are other reasons why you would do these steps but that is typically the main reason.

This description already shows a significant difference in the cooking process. But the most important thing in the end is the taste. Parboiled rice can be pretty much used for any rice dish that you can think of but will it be tasty? Later in the article, we will be going over this in great detail.

Basmati Rice

Basmati rice is more similar to rice that I am used to. For the most part the cooking process is the same, the difference is in the nutrition. They are minor details but basmati rice is higher in calories and carbs which can be frightening for certain people. This is because they want to avoid high calories and carbs but there is good news for you. The difference is really small.

So there is one important thing we have to look at and you probably guess what it is already. How is the taste?

Nutrition

Parboiled Rice

Parboiled rice is supposed to have a healthy reputation because of the steps required to make them. This is true when you compare the rice to white rice. The problem only comes up when you are talking about brown rice. Brown rice is still healthier than parboiled rice and this is a problem because it makes purchasing parboiled rice pointless.

The point is why would you buy parboiled rice if brown rice is healthier? Also to add to this, the cooking process is significantly easier with brown rice. You don’t have to do the three steps that parboiled rice requires.

Basmati Rice

Basmati rice is probably more valuable when you are talking about nutrition. They are supposed to be low in fat and contain all eight essential amino acids. This makes it healthier than white rice and brown basmati rice is even healthier than that. Furthermore, this detail increases in value because basmati rice focuses on flavor as well.

I can make this claim because basmati rice means fragrant in hindi. This means that the basmati rice focuses on flavor and smell. So when it comes to nutrition value, basmati rice has parboiled rice beat by a mile. Healthy and tasty will always be better than just healthy rice. 

Cooking

Parboiled Rice

Parboiled rice cooking process is quite strange. You would normally expect the cooking process to be quicker than cooking white rice and that is technically true. But I also consider the time required to maximize the nutritional value of parboiled rice. So when you take that into consideration, parboiled rice takes longer to cook. The only benefit is that it cooks faster than brown rice but the problem is that it is not as healthy.

This brings up a pretty serious problem when talking about parboiled rice. Just based on the information so far, why would you buy it? It isn’t as healthy, takes longer to cook, and isn’t as tasty as other rice!

Basmati Rice

Basmati rice doesn’t require a complicated cooking process. You can make basmati rice the same way you make other rice with a small difference. You need to obtain the necessary ingredients to flavor and to make aromatic. Obviously what you need will depend on the person's preference but some common ingredients are butter and salt. As long as you follow the steps perfectly, you will end up with some amazon basmati rice.

Texture

Parboiled Rice

The texture of rice is kinda important for certain rice dishes. So when it comes to parboiled rice, they are firmer and less sticky when cooked. This is great for people who dislike sticky and soft rice but this can become a problem. You won’t be able to make classic dishes like sticky mango rice. I mean you can still try but you won’t be able to bring out the best flavors with this parboiled rice.

The texture is more of a preference thing. I only urge you to do research on the rice. Not having the right rice can make your dining experience inconvenient. 

Basmati Rice

Basmati rice is a little bit more odd if you are used to regular white rice. It isn’t as firm as regular white rice and that can be a problem for some people. If you aren’t a picky eater, then you will be able to enjoy basmati rice with no problem. They also have the same problem as parboiled rice when it comes to certain dishes but that should be fine for basmati rice in my article. Parboiled rice has the same problem, so they aren’t losing if they can’t do it too.

Flavor

Parboiled Rice

I am sorry for whoever buys parboiled rice for the flavor. As I have said before, parboiled rice doesn’t focus on flavor but it focuses on nutrition. This becomes a problem since regular brown rice would be a better alternative. Brown rice is both tastier and healthier than parboiled rice. It is also a lot more flexible than parboiled rice.

Regular brown rice would be able to work well with whatever rice dish that you can think of. I will reuse an example that I talked about earlier. You can’t use parboiled rice for sticky mango rice, but you can use brown rice for sticky mango rice. So it really is just outclassed by other types of rice.

Basmati Rice

Basmati rice is just excellent because it has a nuttier flavor than other types of rice. Furthermore, the aroma of the food adds to the flavor of the food as well in my opinion. To top if all off, they also are healthy and that means you can eat quite a lot of it guilt free. There can be an argument that regular brown rice is healthier than basmati rice but that’s fine. This is because no one can argue that brown rice completely outclasses basmati but you can say that with parboiled.

So to summarize, basmati rice has parboiled rice completely beat!

Winner

The winner is BASMATI RICE!!

I tried really hard to point out the benefits of the parboiled rice but I can’t. They don’t win in any of the categories that I mentioned in my article. They had a fighting chance for texture only but that is more of a preference thing. It is also incredibly minor, basmati rice will be your winner as long as you can ignore the texture of parboiled rice. I find it really hard to believe that the texture of the rice will be that big of a deal.

I also will admit that I place a heavier importance on flavor. But even if the parboiled rice did better than basmati, they were still outclassed in all the other categories. So if you want to try out some new rice, I highly recommend that you check out the beauty called basmati rice.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.