Oven Baked Forbidden Black Rice

This oven baked forbidden black rice is my latest OBSESSION!  It’s SO easy to make, and comes out perfectly every time! It has an amazingly sweet, buttery, nutty flavor and this amazing chewy texture!  It’s seriously the bomb, and I’ve been making it non-stop for the past 2-weeks!  I think I may love it a teeny tiny bit more than my oven baked brown rice.

If you haven’t tried forbidden black rice, then you need to! I promise you will become a fan after just one bite. Black, brown and red rices are packed full of nutrients, are naturally gluten-free and full of protein and fiber. It’s time to move away from white rice folks and step it up a notch. I’ve even gotten Eli to appreciate the flavor and texture of brown and black rice.

Some of the health benefits of black forbidden rice:

• It’s lower in calories, lower in carbohydrates, and higher in protein and fiber than white or brown rice.
• It’s naturally gluten-free! Yay!
• It’s a good source of iron.
• It contains over 23 types of antioxidants, and contains one of the highest levels of the antioxidant anthocyanin (think blueberries) which has been correlated with helping to prevent cardiovascular disease, protect against cancer, improve brain function and reduce inflammation.

To make your rice even more nutrient dense, try cooking it with bone broth. When you cook rice in bone broth instead of water all the nutrients and minerals (protein, collagen, amino acids and minerals) get absorbed into the grains, and you’re left with a nutrient-rich, ultra-flavorful, supercharged rice.

I’ve been staying away from gluten and having options like black and brown rice makes it so much easier. I toss this rice in salads, pair it with sautéed spinach and leftovers, use it as a base for taco Tuesday. The list goes on and on. I love it so much that I’ve been known to eat it out of the baking dish. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Oven baked forbidden black rice

makes 2 cups cooked rice, serves 4 as a side dish

Note:  Try using bone broth instead of water, as when you use bone broth all the nutrients and minerals (protein, collagen, amino acids and minerals) get absorbed into the grains, and you’re left with a nutrient-rich, flavorful supercharged rice.

special equipment: 8-inch square glass baking dish 

• 1 cup black forbidden rice – I love Lotus Foods Organic Black Forbidden Rice
• 2 cups chicken, vegetable broth or water – I usually use Kettle and Fire Chicken Bone Broth
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt – I love this salt from Selina Naturally
• 1 tablespoon unrefined coconut oil 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Note: There are conflicting views on rinsing black rice. Some say that rinsing it gets rid of all its nutrients, and others say that you should rinse it to get rid of any excess starch. It’s totally up to you. I’ve made it both ways, rinsing and not rinsing it, and it still cooks up perfectly and tastes. 

Place rice on the bottom of the baking dish making sure to get it level. Top rice with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon coconut oil.

When oven is close to 375 degrees, pour 2 cups broth or water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

When broth comes to a boil, pour it over the rice.

Quickly cover the baking dish tightly with a layer of parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Make sure that it’s a tight fit, as you want the rice to steam, and if it’s not tight, then the liquid will evaporate.

Note: You can just use aluminum foil to cover your rice, but as I said in an earlier post, aluminum foil is know to leach aluminum into food, so it’s best to use a layer of parchment as a barrier when cooking with aluminum foil. I know the foil isn’t exactly touching the rice here, but there will be condensation which can drop from the foil into the rice.  In my opinion, it’s better to be safe than sorry, but that’s just me being anal, so it’s really up to you!

Bake covered rice in the preheated 375 degree oven on the middle rack for exactly 1 HOUR!  Do not check the rice, just set your timer for 1 hour and walk away.

Pull the rice out of the oven, remove the parchment and foil, fluff the rice up with a spoon and serve it up.

It will cook up perfectly if you follow the above instructions. I’ve been making my brown rice this way for 6 years and have done the same method with this black rice 4 times, and it cooks up perfectly every time. That’s why I love this method so much!

If you love this rice, then try making my oven baked brown rice. It’s good to switch it up once in a while, as the more you vary your whole grains, the more exposed your body will be to different nutrients. If you make this, please let me know how it turned out for you and what you paired it with!