Blueberries and Brown Rice

As I type this rain drops are attacking my window.  Soon I’ll be walking my dog in the squelchy, slushy grass that lines the water-logged footpath outside. Cashew, my dog, likes to dawdle and sniff every solitary blade of grass in the Olympic-sized park at the top of the hill and the snuffling and shuffling can be problematic on days like today when time is limited and bucket loads of rain are pelting down and collecting in rather large swimming pools on the awaiting pavement.

Right now I’m in bed with a cup of morning chai and for some reason; blueberries and brown rice are whispering sweet nothings in my ear. Maybe it’s just the two of them and the fact that their nourishing combination goes together like a man and his wife that is making me feel comforted and absorbing my thoughts.

The food I’ve been eating lately is simple stuff, not because it’s all the rage, but for other reasons.  My mission when nourishing my body is to ensure I cook with the least amount of processed foods and look for ingredients that are environmentally sound where I can.

All rice, travels through several processes before it makes its way conveniently to your plastic package. Once picked, the seeds are milled to remove the outer husk. This results in simple, untarnished brown rice.

But wait, there’s more to this story.

Add a more few more steps and you’re immersed deep into the processing food chain and it’s fussed over, buffed up creation of white rice. The inner bran and germ is removed and the rice is polished using something equally as tantalizing as glucose or talc. Yes I am talking about that talc, the one that Granny Mabel likes to call her little specs of love dust and sprinkle lavishingly on her important areas. The end result is a gran oops grain that has had most of its wonderful nutrients zilched.

Environmentally speaking, if you look at it simply, more processing = more energy used= a larger carbon footprint.

Then there’s nutrient loss.  Plain white rice has less Vitamin E, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folic acid, potassium, magnesium and iron and don’t forget to subtract three quarters of the fibre too.

This recipe is topped off with delicious blueberries, which if you buy them in season in bulk, can be instantly frozen for all of your blueberry requirements and plunged into smoothies at the drop of a hat.  Rich in antioxidants and delightfully low in sugar their sweetness mingling with the brown rice’s nuttiness make them the perfect twosome for this rainy day pudding.

Blueberries and Brown Rice

Serves 2-3

•  2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon stevia powder
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. cardamom
• pinch grated nutmeg
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• ground cinnamon, to serve

Method

Put the rice, almond milk, coconut milk, stevia, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until it starts to thicken and become creamy, about 10 minutes. Turn the heat to low and add the blueberries. Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Spoon into waiting bowls and sprinkle generously with cinnamon. You can also add 1 TBS of unsalted butter if it takes your fancy.