Tired of plain old white rice as a side dish? This Ginger Rice is full of flavor and makes a delicious side for many dishes.
Ginger Rice is one of my favorite jasmine rice recipes. It pairs perfectly with many Asian dishes and adds much more flavor to meals than traditional white rice.
Rice is a side dish that I find myself making frequently, as it tends to go with everything. However, white rice can be pretty bland and flavorless, which is great in some recipes.
Make sure to PIN Ginger Rice!
But lately, I’ve found myself experimenting with other jasmine rice recipes to add to my rotating collection of rice dishes. This Ginger Rice is one of my new favorite sides for Asian cuisine.
What is jasmine rice?
Jasmine rice is a type of long-grain aromatic white rice, primarily from Thailand. It’s my preferred type of rice to cook with so most of my favorite rice dishes are jasmine rice recipes.
Ginger Rice makes a simple and easy rice side dish. With just a few extra ingredients, it’s almost as easy as making plain rice but with so much added flavor.
I love ginger rice because it’s tasty enough to stand alone as a side dish for nearly any meal but also pairs perfectly with other Asian dishes.
Top it with scallions to serve as a side dish or even add in some veggies like carrots or peas. I also love using ginger rice in stir fry recipes.
I included rinsing the rice as the first step of this recipe as I’ve found that it’s a very important step in cooking the perfect rice. C
heck out my post on how to make perfect rice every time. No more sticky, overcooked rice! Here is a small sneak peek into what you’d find there…
- Rinse your rice before cooking. This removes all of the debris and surface starches and will prevent rice from getting mushy.
- Soak your rice in water to give the grains a head start and helps it cook more evenly.
- Never trust the package directions, experiments with different brands of rice and find one you really like.
- Give your rice a quick stir to prevent clumping after adding to liquid, but do not continue to stir through the cooking process. Stirring releases more starch and will leave you with mushy rice. Yuck! This isn’t risotto!
- Make sure you bring the rice and the liquid to a bowl before lowering the temperature and covering.
- Don’t peek! It releases steam and lowers the temperature, slowing down the cooking process.
- When you do check your rice at the end, press a grain between two of your fingers. It should be firm enough that the exterior holds together, but soft enough to mash with slight pressure.
- Always fluff your rice with a fork. Stirring with a spoon naturally mashes it.
- Allow rice to sit, off heat, for at least 5 minutes after it is done.
Whether you’re making it as a side dish on it’s own or to accompany your favorite Asian dish, this Ginger Rice will become your new favorite jasmine rice recipe.
What to Serve with Ginger Rice
Tools for making Ginger Rice:
Heavy Bottom Sauce Pan– this will be one of your most used kitchen tools. Having something that is heavy bottom will distribute heat better and prevent burning whether you are using an electric or gas range.
Micrograter– A small kitchen utensil you find you use a lot more than you expected! Perfect for both garlic and ginger.
Questions you might have about making Ginger Rice:
Can I use wild rice? You can use wild rice or any other type of rice, however I cannot attest to the same amount of liquid being correct and it is not considered to be an Asian rice recipe. Consult the package directions and still add the other ingredients. Same goes for brown rice.
Can I use chicken broth instead of water? YES! One of my simplest tricks for amplifying food is using chicken or vegetable broth when water is called for.
Is this the same as coconut rice? Unfortunately not. However, I do have a recipe for coconut rice as well as other rice favorites like ranch rice, almond rice pilaf and cheesy rice and Spanish rice.
Ginger Rice Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup jasmine rice (not instant)*
- 1 tablespoon ginger , grated
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons scallions
Instructions
- In a colander, rinse rice well, shaking off excess water.
- Combine water, rinsed rice, fresh ginger, garlic, butter, kosher salt and pepper in a medium sauce pan.
- Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a low simmer.
- Cover and allow to cook for 20-25 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork and serve.
- Top with scallions or serve with your favorite meal.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back to leave us a comment and rate it!
I am a ginger nut. I want to know if I can sub ginger paste for the grated ginger. I like the paste because it is a quick way to amp up taste.
Of course! You do you, Misty!
I made this 2 nights ago. Will be making it, again tomorrow. I love it. I added half a cube of vege stock to the water and some turmeric for colour. I cooked it in my rice pot. I added more spring onions and mixed it thru the rice instead of using it sprinkled on top.
Love those suggestions- thank you!
Perfect recipe! Instead of fresh ginger, I used approximately 1 tablespoon of the ginger that comes in a tube, I also cooked the rice with vegetable broth instead of water. It was a hit! Thank you~
Thanks so much for coming back to let us know!
This is the *perfect* rice to have for any Asian-inspired mains! And it’s so easy to whip up, too!
This is so flavorful and easy to make! Amazing side dish! My family loved it!
This ginger rice is the perfect side! We eat so much rice in my family and the ginger flavor was a nice change.
I love adding different flavor profiles to rice. It jazzes it up a little bit for extra satisfaction. Ginger adds so much extra to this rice dish. Thanks for this amazing recipe.
This is so good! I’d never had ginger rice before by we LOVE it now!
Does this rice freeze well?
Hi Lizzy- it freezes the same as any rice. It will freeze and thaw, but might be slightly gummy.
I’ve made this so many times now and love it!
Yay! We love to hear that and thank YOU for coming back to let us know!
This was delicious. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
We love different kinds of rice sides (sometimes), since potatoes are SO yesterday! This is a super tasty recipe. We also like Saffron Rice. Yes, rinsing the rice is very important. Since we have rice often, I researched rice on the internet, & found that it contains arsenic – b/c of where & how it grows. I have friends who will never eat rice because of this. Personally, I’m not too alarmed, since there would be no people left in the Asian countries if this was a huge problem – since they eat rice every day. Check it out, & what are your thoughts regarding this.
Hi Angelina, I am not a health professional, so please take this with a grain of salt (or rice),but my opinion on the matter is that there are A LOT of foods that contain trace amounts of arsenic. In fact, is is in nearly all foods, not just rice grains. And if you aren’t going to eat rice grains, then you also can’t eat any rice products including rice cereals or crackers, or anything with rice flour.
The moral of the story is that not eating rice (or rice products) will not eliminate arsenic from your body or diet and small amounts aren’t harmful, according to doctors. High amounts, however are, and are higher in some areas because of pollution that then pollutes the water that feeds the rice patties. In these areas it has been linked to serious health concerns. But again- certain areas and large consumption.
Also, white rice is so processed that nearly everything in it- good and bad- is processed out by the time it gets to you.
Fantastic rice recipe! I ate it with lentil curry and it complimented it perfectly!
Lovely! And thank you for coming by to let us know- means the world!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times. It pairs with everything! It’s so so yummy I even received compliments from my friends of how great this rice is. Thank you for sharing!
Yay! So glad you enjoy it!
Seeing this Ginger Rice made my tummy growl!
I absolutely love the addition of ginger here!
This is going to go great with my chicken recipes.
I really liked the flavor profile and I’m always looking for ways to incorporate fresh ginger so this was great, but the rice to water ratio was way off. The first time I made this per the recipe and ended up pouring off some of the water and cooking a long time. The second time I used 1 1/2 cups water instead of 2 1/4 and that was much better. Also cooking times vary on jasmine rice – some cook for only 15 min (your instructions say cook 2-25, I think you meant 20-25?). I also reduced the pepper from 1/2 tsp to 1/4 tsp. I stirred 1 TBS of the scallions into the rice after fluffing at the end and topped with the rest.
Thanks for the feedback! It surely makes a difference from brand to brand.
Yum! This was so much better than just making plain white rice.
This makes such a great side dish! So easy and full of flavor!