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Photo by Corsica_JP.
Despite their name, rice cookers are essentially giant steamers, so anything that benefits from moist cooking does great in the contraption. Fish, chicken, dumplings, vegetables—all kinds of good stuff. In fact, ethnic food like Caribbean or Middle Eastern cuisine make some of the tastiest dishes around. The New York Times explains:
Domingo Guillen uses his to make vast batches of Puerto Rican arroz con gandules, rice and peas, before a weekly domino game at his apartment in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Fairuza Akhtar, a restaurant owner in Jackson Heights, Queens, who was born in Pakistan, has developed a quick method for making fragrant, creamy biriyani with whole spices and bites of chicken, at home in her rice cooker. 'My mother would fall down in a faint,' she said, referring to the traditionally reverent attitude toward biriyanis in Northern India and Pakistan. 'But rice cookers are the way of the modern world.'
If you want to experiment with your rice cooker but don't want to get too exotic right out of the gate, then start small by whipping up a batch of oatmeal or hot cereal. If your cooker has a time delay, you can even load it up the night before and wake up to a stick-to-your-ribs breakfast on a cold morning.
Real Simple has a few other ideas on using a rice cooker to put together steamed veggie side dishes and cool desserts like poached fruit. According to them, soups and hearty stews are also a great bet.
Give your rice cooker enough liquid and time and it will create long-simmered dishes without scorching or boiling over (the way slow cookers sometimes can). Try split-pea soup with ham, or put beef (that's been browned on the stove) and vegetables in the cooker with tomatoes, wine, and herbs for a hearty dinner.
I make all kinds of cool (and sometimes weird) stuff in my rice cooker. Bean dishes are a snap and perfect for softening pintos for refried beans. Salmon wrapped in a foil pouch is awesome, and you can cook long-grained wild rice right underneath it so everything's done at once. Or, snap a pound of pasta noodles in half, cover with water, and let your cooker take over. I've even made a cake with my trusty cooker—just mix all the ingredients right in the rice pan and turn it on.
I know Lifehacker readers are a clever bunch, so let's hear your ideas for meals and sides in the comments. Now, go forth and cook.
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