Korean purple rice is made by simply cooking white rice and black rice to create this pretty purple-colored rice. Not just the color, adding black rice gives it a chewy, nutty taste. The purple hue color depends on the amount of black glutinous rice you use along with white rice.
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Pretty purple rice recipe
In Korean, it’s called Heukmi Bap which translates to black rice, but due to its purple hue color, it’s also called as purple rice. Regular white sticky rice is a staple in many Asian households. Make plain white rice a little more interesting, a little more nutritious, and a whole lot pretty by making it purple by adding black rice to white rice while cooking it.
Black rice also called forbidden rice has many health benefits, one of them being it’s rich in antioxidants. Depending on how much black rice you use, the purple color hue will vary. Use more black rice if you want more health benefits and not just the color.
In this recipe, I used little black rice along with medium-grain white rice. Feel free to increase the black rice.
Ingredients needed
Here’s what you’ll need-
- 2 cups medium grain white rice (short grain rice is best , sticky rice too)
- 1 tablespoon black rice
- 2 cups + 1 tablespoon water
White rice – short grain rice is the best choice. It’s more glutinous and helps rice stick together. If you can’t get short-grain sticky rice you can use medium-grain white rice like me.
Black rice – I used regular black rice. If you can find Korean glutinous black rice go for it.
Water
How to make it
Combine white rice and black rice in a pot.
Pour water into the pot until the rice is submerged fully underwater. Rinse rice by swooshing the grains around(water video for the helpful tip), and drain all the water. Repeat this step 2 to 4 times until the water becomes clear.
Next, soak rice by adding water to the pot until the rice is fully submerged. Soaking the rice is an optional step, but it helps is cooking rice a little faster and the grains turn out great.
Once the rice is soaked, drain it completely.
Into a large sauce pour water. Add soaked rice.
Place the sauce pan over medium heat and bring it to a boil.
When the water begins to boil, stir the rice with a spoon.
Reduce heat to the lowest setting. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 23 to 25 minutes or until the rice is cooked through.
After the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Remove the pan from heat and let it rest undisturbed for 10 minutes.
Fluff rice gently and serve it with your favorite meal.
Tips for success
- More black rice. If you want deeper purple rice, use more glutinous black rice. Do remember more black rice you use, the texture is going to be chewier and nuttier. You may need to adjust the rice, and water ratio.
- Rinse rice. Be sure to rinse rice 2 to 4 times until the water runs clear.
- Soaking the rice is an optional step, but it helps in cooking rice a little faster and the grains turn out great.
- Rest rice. After the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Remove the pan from heat and let it rest undisturbed for 10 minutes. This will help rice absorb all moisture and cook to a soft texture.
FAQS
There are various reasons that while cooking rice can be undercooked. If at the end of cooking time, you see rice opaque it’s most probably undercooked.
A few common reasons why rice is undercooked are –
If you try to speed things up and cook rice on high heat, you will end up with undercooked rice.
If the rice-to-water ratio was not correct, rice can be undercooked.
If you did not rest the rice once it’s cooked, there are chances that there is still some liquid/moisture left in the pan which needs to be absorbed by the rice and you opened it too fast.
Depending on how undercooked it is, you mostly will be able to rescue your precious rice. To rescue undercooked rice, level the rice evenly and add about 2 tablespoons of water (up to ¼ cup water depending on how undercooked it is), and place the pot back on the heat. Heat on medium flame, once it begins to boil, cover and reduce heat to low and cook until done. Once done, remove it from the heat, and let it rest on the counter for 10 minutes. Then fluff the rice.
It’s really up to you to decide if you want to rinse the rice or not. I ALWAYS rinse rice!
I always soak rice. Note soaking might seem like the unnecessary extra time needed, but from my experience soaking speeds up the cooking time. Soaked rice cooks faster comparatively. It’s a choice, and it’s up to you.
MORE RICE RECIPES TO TRY
- Instant Pot Rice
- Garlic Rice
- Hibachi Fried Rice
- How To Cook Jasmine Rice
- Seasoned Rice
- Kimchi Fried Rice
- Turmeric Yellow Rice
- Instant Pot Mexican Rice
- Rice Pilaf
- Steamed Rice
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📋Korean Purple Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups medium-grain white rice you can use short-grain rice or sticky rice
- 1 tablespoon black rice
- 2 cups + 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Combine white rice and black rice in a pot.
- Pour water into the pot until the rice is submerged fully underwater. Rinse rice by swooshing the grains around(water video for the helpful tip), and drain all the water. Repeat this step 2 to 4 times until the water becomes clear.
- Next, soak the rice by adding water to the pot until the rice is fully submerged. Soaking the rice is an optional step, but it helps in cooking rice a little faster and the grains turn out great.
- Once the rice is soaked, drain it completely.
- Into a large sauce pour water. Add soaked rice.
- Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a boil.
- When the water begins to boil, stir the rice with a spoon.
- Reduce heat to the lowest setting. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 23 to 25 minutes or until the rice is cooked through.
- After the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Remove the pan from heat and let it rest undisturbed for 10 minutes.
- Fluff rice gently and serve it with your favorite meal.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Notes
- More black rice. If you want deeper purple rice, use more glutinous black rice. Do remember more black rice you use, the texture is going to be chewier and nuttier. You may need to adjust the rice, and water ratio.
- Rinse rice. Be sure to rinse rice 2 to 4 times until the water runs clear.
- Soaking the rice is an optional step, but it helps in cooking rice a little faster and the grains turn out great.
- Rest rice. After the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Remove the pan from heat and let it rest undisturbed for 10 minutes. This will help rice absorb all moisture and cook to a soft texture.
Created by Jyothi Rajesh
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I’m Jyothi Rajesh (Jo for short) and i’m the founder of the food blog, Curry Trail where I share my culinary Adventures. I live in Bangalore, India. I’m a mom of two beautiful kids. My passion is creating and sharing delicious and easy recipes for the home cook. I have been blogging since 2007 and many of my recipes have appeared in both online and print publications over the years. Learn more about Jyothi Rajesh.
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