I love rice dishes so much but I’m finally to the age that I would food crash because of rice. I was sad for a few years. But recently I found orzo (rice shaped pasta) is a great alternative! I have tried 炊き込みご飯 , gyudon, and fried rice. They all worked great.
I think replacing rice with orzo will be doable in hayashi rice, curry, and sushi as well. Thicker sauce may work better covering the orzo grains.
So for 炊き込みご飯 here’s the recipe:
Barilla is my go to brand. Use 1/3 cup orzo and 1/2 cup of liquid.
Liquid: 1 TSP soy sauce, 1 TSP cooking wine, 2 TSP mirlin Filled to 1/2 cup with water
cook orzo, liquid, your favorite veggies and protein all together in one pot in medium fire until all the liquid gone and protein cooked.
by rietveldrefinement
14 Comments
What do you mean by food crash? Because the rice has a high glycemic index? You can try 2/3 white rice and 1/3 brown rice, still tasty but with the added benefit of brown rice.
Or just use brown rice? Seems simpler and has a great taste
It’s a lot lower in calories, which may not be what you want, but cauliflower rice is also a substitute!
I use brown rice. It has a great flavor and good nutritional profile.
You can freeze rice and it can be reheated to a pretty decent state and it will turn a considerable portion of the starch to a non digestible variety that would lessen or entirely stop a sugar crash
According to some studies if you cool your carbs before eating or reheating it changes the glycemic index rating/turns into a more resistant carb.
This is an OSU article. Many more can be found with a Google search of “cooling carbs resistant starch”
https://share.google/4yqBtbUmj8rd5zw3q
where do you find orzo in Japan?
Use cauliflower rice for curry. It’s amazing. Feels much lighter but still quite satisfying
I think you can swap out orzo if you want to but rice is a grain and orzo is pasta so I don’t think you’ll have a net starch benefit. The hypoglycemic leap will be with the pasta, & not the rice. I’m with the folks who suggest incorporating brown rice.
Isn’t pasta way worse for this than rice
You can also refrigerate/freeze the rice after cooking and reheat before eating to circumvent the high glycemic index. It will make the starch more resistant.
I don’t think you’re understanding nutrition correctly. Pasta and rice have very similar amount in carbs.
Is wild rice any better?
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/12/nx-s1-5392004/rice-nutrition-pasta-digest-super-food
Cook rice, then cool it before reheating and eating it to lower the glycemic index