Rice recipes are some of the most versatile in any cook's repertoire. Rice itself can be fragrant, spicy, creamy, crisp or wonderfully simple, and it has a place in cuisines all over the world. I have eaten rice in India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore, as well as Italy, France, Spain and the United States — and every country does something different and extraordinary with the same humble grain. From Spanish paella and Italian risotto to pilau, fried rice and hearty one-pot dishes, this collection celebrates the many ways rice can be transformed into something delicious.

Know Your Rice

Before diving into the rice recipes, it helps to know what you are working with. Basmati, arborio, arroz bomba and glutinous rice are not interchangeable — each variety has its own starch structure, cooking behaviour and best use. Get this right and everything else follows.

Types of Rice — A Cook's Guide to Every Variety
A complete guide to every rice variety you are likely to encounter — basmati, jasmine, arborio, arroz bomba, Calrose, sushi rice, wild rice, Camargue red and more — with advice on which to use for which dish, how to store it, and how to cook it properly.

The essential starting point for any rice recipe collection.

Spanish Rice

Spain takes rice seriously. Arroz bomba from Valencia, saffron from La Mancha, the socarrat at the bottom of a proper paella — these are not shortcuts or approximations. They are a cuisine built around rice in a way that few countries can match. Living in Andalucía, I cook Spanish rice dishes often, and each one has its own logic.

Paella: The Socarrat Fallout
A paella post born from a genuine disagreement about the socarrat — that prized crust at the bottom of the pan. What it is, how to get it, and whether it is worth the argument.

Arroz con Pollo del Puerto Rico
Chicken and rice, Puerto Rican style — a one-pan dish built on sofrito, spiced seasoning and the kind of comfort food that crosses continents without losing its identity.

Chicken Basque-ish with Saffron
A one-pan chicken dish with a Basque lean — peppers, saffron and a method that does most of the work for you.

Cod Parcels en Papillote with Saffron Rice
Cod baked in a parcel with saffron rice alongside — a Friday night dinner at Casa Adora that feels like more effort than it is.

Andaluz Chicken cooked in Lancashire
The flavours of Andalucía — olive oil, garlic, paprika — applied to a chicken dish made in the north of England. A bit of a hybrid, and none the worse for it.

Marinated Cazón with Vegetable Pilau Rice
Dogfish marinated in the Andalucían style — adobo, cumin, vinegar — with a vegetable pilau rice that earns its place on the same plate.

These Spanish rice recipes are built around arroz bomba, saffron and the discipline of the paella pan.

Italian Rice

Italian rice cookery is built on patience and stock. Arborio, carnaroli, vialone nano — the variety matters, but the method matters more. A good risotto cannot be rushed.

Risotto: It is all in the stock
The case for making your own stock before you make your risotto — and why the difference is not subtle.

Asian Rice

Rice is at the heart of cooking across the whole of Asia — from the spiced biryanis and pilaus of the subcontinent to the fried rice of Southeast Asia and the slow-simmered porridges of China. What they share is an understanding of rice as a foundation, not a side dish.

Vegetable Biryani with Homemade Biryani Masala
A one-pan vegetable biryani using aged basmati, homemade biryani masala and ghee, finished using the dum method. Fragrant, deeply spiced, and honest enough to hold its own against a good pilau.

Mrs Uganda's Vegetable Pilau
The best rice dish I ever ate in Lancashire came from a Ugandan Asian family who had bought a chip shop in Norden and cooked rice like nowhere else on that street. This is my version of Mrs Uganda's pilau — golden basmati, whole spices and sultanas, which are non-negotiable.

Vegetable Pilau
A straightforward vegetable pilau — the kind of rice dish that works as a side or a meal, depending on what else is on the table.

Vegetable Pilau Rice Recipe — A Taj Mahal Recreation
An attempt to recreate the vegetable pilau from a 1960s Taj Mahal restaurant menu — proper spicing, proper method, and a certain amount of detective work.

Spiced Fried Onion Rice with Vegetables
Rice built on a base of deeply fried onions and whole spices — a technique that adds more flavour than you expect from something so straightforward.

Chickpea Khichdi with Fresh Red Chillies and Ginger
Khichdi is the comfort food of the subcontinent — rice and lentils or legumes cooked together until they become something greater than the sum of their parts. This version uses chickpeas and fresh red chillies.

Kedgeree with Smoked Trout — A Scottish Classic from a Spanish Kitchen
From khichdi to the Victorian breakfast sideboard, via Stephana Malcolm's Dumfriesshire kitchen in 1790. Spanish trucha ahumada in place of smoked haddock, basmati folded through homemade garam masala and freshly ground cardamom, finished with a pinch of cayenne. A dish that has always travelled well.

Sesame and Ginger Chicken Meatballs with Spinach and Rice
Chicken meatballs seasoned with sesame and ginger, served with spinach and rice — a weeknight dinner that borrows from East Asian flavours without pretending to be anything more specific than that.

Easy Egg Fried Rice Recipe
Day-old jasmine rice tossed in a high-sided frying pan with beaten eggs, spring onion, peas, carrot, soy sauce and sesame oil — cooked on a single gas ring at 980 metres above sea level in Abrucena, a mountain town in Almería province where the town hall provides the parking and asks nothing in return.

Nasi Goreng Recipe — Indonesian Fried Rice from the Van
Indonesia's national dish — day-old jasmine rice stir-fried with kecap manis, shallots, garlic and chilli on a single gas ring in Florie, parked up at Huércal-Overa in Almería province. Topped with a fried egg and prawn crackers from Lidl.

Congee Recipe — Cantonese Chicken Congee (Ji Zhou)
Jasmine rice simmered low and slow in chicken stock with ginger, garlic and shredded chicken until thick, creamy and deeply soothing. The Cantonese version — Ji Zhou — is the classic of the form, and the one most people encounter first.

These Asian rice recipes span the subcontinent, Southeast Asia and East Asia — biryani to congee, pilau to nasi goreng.

Middle Eastern & Mediterranean Rice

Rice travels. The same grain that goes into a Spanish paella turns up in a Palestinian maqluba, a Bahraini fega'ata and a Greek fasolada. What changes is everything around it — the spice, the technique, the story.

Maqluba — Upside-Down Chicken and Rice
A Palestinian dish in which the rice, vegetables and chicken are cooked together and then inverted onto a plate — the reveal is half the point.

Fega'ata Chicken
Bahrain's answer to the great Middle Eastern rice dishes — chicken and spiced rice with a method that is quieter than biryani but no less considered.

Greek Bean Stew with Rice
A fasolada-inspired dish with rice added — white beans, tomato, olive oil and enough herbs to make it smell like a Greek kitchen.

Comfort Food for One: Chicken and Saffron Rice on the Hob
Chicken thighs and saffron rice cooked together on the hob — a single-pan dinner for one that asks very little and delivers a great deal.

These Middle Eastern rice recipes share a common thread — rice as the foundation of something greater than itself.

Rice on the Road — Campervan Cooking

Florie runs on a two-ring gas hob and whatever's in the fridge. Rice travels well in a van — it's light, takes up no space, and turns a handful of store-cupboard ingredients into a proper meal. These are the rice dishes that have actually been cooked on the road.

One-Pan Chickpea Rice Bowl
A tin of chickpeas, some rice, half an onion, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and a tub of hummus stirred in at the end — cooked at Magacela with views of the castle above the town. Twenty minutes, one pan, considerably better than it had any right to be.

Easy Egg Fried Rice Recipe
Day-old jasmine rice tossed in a high-sided frying pan with beaten eggs, spring onion, peas, carrot, soy sauce and sesame oil — cooked on a single gas ring at 980 metres above sea level in Abrucena.

Arroz con Leche — A Creamy Spanish Rice Pudding from the Road
A creamy Spanish rice pudding made with pudding rice, orange blossom honey and cassia bark, cooked on a single gas ring at the Embalse de Colomera, where the Colomera and Las Juntas rivers meet in Granada province.

Nasi Goreng Recipe — Indonesian Fried Rice from the Van
Indonesia's national dish — day-old jasmine rice stir-fried with kecap manis, shallots, garlic and chilli on a single gas ring in Florie, parked up at Huércal-Overa in Almería province. Topped with a fried egg and prawn crackers from Lidl.

These campervan rice recipes prove that a single gas ring is enough.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef