During the last few days, as a fan of healthy and clean eating practices, I wrote an article on the health-friendliness of brown rice based on extended research. It motivated me to try brown rice myself–I was new to their taste.
So, as soon as I visited the superstore, I started to look for brown rice in the rice section. With no hassle, I spotted it. The price tag was hefty since brown rice fascinated me, so I tried it.
Eventually, I grabbed a 2-pound jar and added it to my cart.
Reaching home, out of excitement, I couldn’t wait, and the next day, after searching for how I should cook brown rice, I cooked it.
To know what brown rice tastes like, I cooked it in water with little seasoning (salt) only. I think to enjoy the actual taste of
Aromatic brown rice is my palette…!
Now it was time to taste it.
I didn’t taste brown rice.
Instead, the taste of brown rice “happened to me,” step by step.
Yeah!
What Did Brown Rice Taste Like to Me?
As said earlier, the brown rice taste happened to me. Here is how I found it.
First, the fragrance of brown rice was less strong, but it gave hints of its presence. It was nutty.
Then, as soon as I stuffed a spoonful of cooked brown rice, I tasted it sweet when I started chewing. And, when chewed, it turned out entirely nutty, as if you were eating white rice with some added nuts, a little extra sweetness, but forced to chew it a lot.
By the end of the bite, my overall opinion of brown rice was,
They’re tasty, light in smell, but stronger in taste, which is more nutty and sweet than earthy.
So, Does Brown Rice Taste Different from White Rice?
To describe the taste of anything, you must have tasted something related to it. And, like many of you, I’m already a white rice eater. So, comparing the taste of brown rice with white rice is the best way to describe it,
Yet, if you ask me, “Does brown rice taste like white rice?”
I would say,
Yes, to some extent…Brown rice is just 50% near to the taste of white rice, sweet and earthy; the rest of 50% is nutty or “almondy” to make the overall taste as complex.
Contrarily, white rice tastes cleaner, earthy, and sweet.
Why Does Brown Rice Taste Different from White Rice?
The brown rice tastes different because of the bran and germ left on the grain–it hasn’t been milled to remove the bran and germ. The bran and germ are the outer layers of the rice grain, and they contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
These nutrients give brown rice its nutty, slightly earthy flavor. White rice, on the other hand, has been milled to remove the bran and germ. This makes white rice softer and less flavorful than brown rice. White rice also has a higher glycemic index than brown rice, meaning that it causes blood sugar levels to rise more quickly.
Why Does Brown Rice Taste Bad to Some People?
The answer is “the chewing effort” deprives you of the taste that you could actually expect from brown rice. Brown rice has a stronger and nuttier taste, which has to be attained through chewing, while you’re already in the habit of enjoying the effortless aromatic and quick taste of white rice as soon as you put it in your mouth.
For this reason, some people, new to brown rice, have compared its taste with dirt (it has little truth, they couldn’t handle chewing it). Otherwise, the brown rice actually tastes good.
Since I have eaten a full plate of brown rice ( the rest uncooked brown rice is waiting in my kitchen cabinet to be cooked, yet I don’t dare to cook it, for I’ll have to chew it more), I know how effortful it has been to eat the entire serving requiring so long time to eat.
To put it simply, less earthy, nuttier, robust-tasting brown rice is as tasty as white rice is, yet the chewing makes it challenging to it, which tricks you out of enjoying it in full. And, I think, it’s the biggest drawback of brown rice.
Can you Substitute Brown and White Rice?
Brown rice and white rice can’t be used interchangeably for the reasons listed below:
- Foremost, the cooking time for brown rice is 3X more than white rice. It’s why you can hardly adjust the cooking time.
- The taste difference is huge, and you can’t simply use nutty-flavored brown rice instead of sweet, earthy white rice.
- The price factor can’t be ignored. You might not want to replace your cheap white rice with expensive brown rice.
- Brown rice has a chewier texture than white rice. This is because the bran layer of brown rice gives it its structure. White rice has a softer texture because it has been milled to remove the bran layer.
- The starch ratio is different in both rice types, which can alter your dish texture significantly.
However, if you’re shifting your diet from white rice to brown rice, you can use brown rice in your recipe. If you’ve been cooking dishes previously using white rice, by adjusting the cooking time of all ingredients, you can create brown rice recipes.
Final thoughts on Brown Rice Taste.
Brown rice tastes like white rice to some extent. Yet owing to the fiber content ( germ and bran), brown rice taste much nuttier and less earthy, despite being sweet.
