Have you ever fought with a piece of grilled chicken or wrestled with a slippery slab of tofu while your rice went cold underneath? A rice bowl is a one-handed meal, and every topping you add to the mix should respect this fact. Because, regardless of what cutlery you’re using, the last thing you want is to grapple with a piece of meat or chase a rogue portobello across your bowl. There’s a simple tip to avoiding this nightmare, and it goes back to the chopping board.
The heart and soul of any good rice bowl is in the toppings. While the rice needs to be perfectly cooked, everything that goes on top needs to be chopped into fork, spoon or chopstick-friendly pieces. It requires a little bit of time and some basic knife skills, but the effort is completely worth it. From meat and vegetables to boiled eggs and pickles, serving the toppings bite-sized ensures that everything in the bowl can be eaten as is, without needing to be further cut into smaller pieces, a messy task that’s almost guaranteed to ruin the meal.
Tips to elevate your rice bowl
Now that you know what not to do, here are a few things you should do to take your rice bowl from a nice, warm hug to a culinary masterpiece. When it comes to nailing the flavor, balance is the key. The biggest mistake you’re probably making with your rice bowl is serving too little rice and too many toppings. Around 1 ½ cups of cooked rice is recommended. Also, while you don’t want to be overloading your bowl with toppings, you definitely need to season them aggressively to counteract the blandness of the rice. From bibimbap to burrito bowls, some of the best bowl recipes use rice as a foundation, and the one thing they all have in common is an overload of bold flavors to bring the dish to life.
The goal is to make every bite interesting, and this is where contrasting textures come into play. Soft rice, chewy mushrooms, crunchy nuts, fresh vegetables, not to forget your perfectly cooked protein. Small elements like capers, olives, or even pomegranate seeds can act as tiny flavor bombs, delivering concentrated bursts of brininess, saltiness, or sweetness.
The final tip is to have fun plating up. The rice is your canvas, the toppings are your colors of choice. With visual appeal and aesthetics in mind, create a rice bowl that’s a feast for your eyes as much as your palate.
