Rice Cookers are a very common appliance found in many people’s kitchens, across many cultures. Rice cookers are a fast and convenient way to cook rice that requires minimal time and effort from you while providing an often superior finished rice when compared to stove top options.

However, they are also often a very under-utilized appliance in people’s homes. Here are some fun ways that you can use your rice cooker;

• You can cook rice in broth with herbs or spices, try different flavorings and pairings for Spanish rice or curried rice or other recipes.

• Cook soups in your rice cooker—many of your favorite soups can be occasionally checked on and the rice cooker will do the rest.

• Try cooking rice in juice for a fun dessert idea—top with fresh cream and fruit. You can also cook fruit purees in for warmed dessert toppings.

• Cook lentils mixed in with your rice or separately. Just add a bit more water to the rice cooker than you normally would for just rice.

• Make a delicious frittata in the rice cooker by pouring your mix of vegetables, eggs, milk and other ingredients into the bottom of the rice cooker and cooking until the rice cooker switches off.

• If your rice cooker has a low-temperature porridge button, you can cook oatmeal or other hot cereals with minimal effort!

• Rice cookers can make boiling eggs easy! Just add two cups of water to your rice cooker and place a few eggs into the steamer basket. Then flip the switch on the rice cooker to return a short amount of time later to well steamed eggs. This method is often preferred to boiling.

• Instead of having a separate vegetable steaming pot for the stove top, just remember that you can use your rice cooker to quickly steam varieties of vegetables. You will want to keep an eye on the vegetables to make sure that you don’t over steam them.

• Cook chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils, black beans, black-eyed peas or just about any other type of bean in the rice cooker. Soak the beans ahead of time and then add about 2 inches more of water to the rice cooker and then let the beans plump up and cook to your desired firmness.

• You can cook cakes like cheesecake, applesauce cake, banana bread, double chocolate cake or other cake mixes in the rice cooker. Just make sure to keep an eye on the rice cooker to make sure you don’t overcook your cake!

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