Garlic and Herb Rice is an easy recipe full of flavor. What makes an easy recipe even easier? When it uses minimal ingredients. Two ingredients is all it takes for this easy gluten free side dish recipe.
What Makes Garlic and Herb Rice So Easy
There are a couple reasons this recipe is so easy.
To start with, I use the Instant Pot for cooking the rice. You can find my recipe for that HERE. The rice cooks on its own and doesn’t require much supervision which allows me time to prepare other parts of my main meal.
Secondly, as I said above, the recipe only uses two ingredients. For the garlic and herb part of the recipe I use soft and spreadable garlic and herb cheese!
I like using the Alouette Brand Garlic and Herb but you could also use Boursin. The cheese is FULL OF FLAVOR and has everything I need for this recipe.
Can I Make This Rice Without an Instant Pot?
If you don’t have an Instant Pot don’t worry. The spreadable cheese gets stirred in at the end of the recipe. Cook your rice anyway you want to. You just want it to be good and hot so the cheese mixes in well.
What Rice Should You Use
I used Basmati Rice for this recipe but use whatever rice is a favorite at your house. This would even work in cooked Minute Rice.
Garlic and Herb Rice Tips
I’ve mentioned cooking rice using your usual method as well as using your favorite type of rice. Here are a couple other tips for the recipe.
Change up the Cheese – Alouette and Boursin both make various flavors or spreadable cheese. Look at what they have and try another flavor to see what you come up with.
Use Room Temperature Cheese – Let the cheese come up to room temperature by leaving it out for 30-60 minutes before adding it to the rice. That will help the cheese and hot rice mix together well.
Reheating the Rice – While the rice is still as flavorful after reheating it, the consistency is not as creamy as when first making this. If you’re going for presentation, it looks the best and has the creamiest texture just after you first cook it.
Salt and Pepper – Add Salt and Pepper if needed. I found that it had enough salt for my taste but needed a little pepper.
Everyone needs easy recipe with just a few ingredients for dinners sometimes. Easy doesn’t mean the food lacks flavor and is boring. Try this recipe and you’ll see what I mean.
Other Recipes With Just a Few Ingredients
Here are some other recipes that only use a few ingredients but are really tasty.
- Chili Pizza – Three ingredients make a quick kid friendly weeknight meal.
- Two Ingredient Coconut Macaroons – I bet you didn’t know you could make cookies with two ingredients? These tender cookies are easy and gluten free.
- CopyCat Dole Whip – A frozen treat that’s healthy and made with four ingredients
- Rolo Pretzel Bites – Sweet and Salty in a one bite treat. Make them with our without gluten by swapping out the pretzels.
Garlic and Herb Rice – Easy & Two Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 cup Basmati Rice
- 1 6.5 oz Package Spreadable Garlic and Herb Cheese, like Alouette.
- 1 ¼ cup water
- ½ tsp salt, optional
- Cooking Spray, optional
Instructions
- Measure out one cup of Basmati rice into a fine mesh sieve.
- Rinse the rice well with cold water for a minute or two until the water is mostly clear.
- If using oil to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the Instant Pot, spray the inside lightly with a little no stick cooking spray or add a little vegetable oil to it.
- Add the Basmati Rice and Water to the Instant Pot and give it a quick stir.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot and set the valve to sealing.
- Set the Instant Pot to manual with a cook time of 6 minutes on high pressure.
- When the time on the Instant Pot reaches zero, turn off the instant pot and allow the pressure to release naturally for 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes move the valve to “venting” and release any remaining pressure.
- Open the Instant Pot, Stir in the Garlic and Herb Cheese, and serve.
Notes
- The Rice – I used Basmati Rice for this recipe but use whatever rice is a favorite at your house. This would even work in cooked Minute Rice.
- The Cooking Method – If you don’t have an Instant Pot don’t worry. The spreadable cheese gets stirred in at the end of the recipe. Cook your rice anyway you want to. You just want it to be good and hot so the cheese mixes in well.
- Change up the Cheese – Alouette and Boursin both make various flavors or spreadable cheese. Look at what they have and try another flavor to see what you come up with.
- Use Room Temperature Cheese – Let the cheese come up to room temperature by leaving it out for 30-60 minutes before adding it to the rice. That will help the cheese and hot rice mix well together.
- Reheating the Rice – While the rice is still as flavorful after reheating it, the consistency is not as creamy as when first making this. If you’re going for presentation, it looks the best and has the creamiest texture just after you first cook it.
- Salt and Pepper – Add Salt and Pepper if needed. I found that it had enough salt for my taste but needed a little pepper.
