Whether you want to add a pop of color to your plate or just have butterfly pea flowers around, you can easily make this beautifully hued rice, traditional to Southeast Asian cuisines.
Whether you're serving a Southeast Asian inspired meal or just want a pop of blue color to your plain white rice, this butterfly pea flower rice will add so much excitement to your table.
This blue rice would pair beautifully with Thai coconut curry mussels, vegan butternut squash curry, or a cool pomelo salad.
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Why You'll ❤️ this Recipe
- You can use butterfly pea powder or flowers, depending on what you have.
- You can add the color before or after cooking the rice.
- You can easily customize the shade of blue you'd like by varying the amount of butterfly pea product you use.
What are butterfly pea flowers?
You may recognize these gorgeous indigo flowers similar to flowers from actual pea plants. This wildflower is not related or visited by butterflies but is part of the pea family. It's called butterfly due to its similar appearance to a butterfly.
Butterfly pea flower rice is not to be confused with forbidden rice, the dark blue, inky purple whole grain rice also from Asia.
Traditional butterfly pea flower rice dishes
- Nasi Lemak - This traditional Malaysian dish consists of a mound of rice surrounded by various meats and vegetables. The rice is often cooked with coconut milk and pandan leaves, but it can also be stained blue with butterfly pea flowers.
- Sticky Sweet Rice with Mango - You may see street stalls in Thailand selling various shades of sweet sticky rice with coconut milk and fresh mangoes. Sometimes they color the rice with butterfly pea powder, which looks great next to orange mangoes.
Ingredients
- Jasmine Rice - Or another white rice of your choice. I like jasmine rice for its fragrance, lightness, fluffiness, and Southeast Asian roots where butterfly pea flowers are most commonly used in cooking.
- Butterfly pea powder - I used this organic Incas brand made in Thailand that I was quite happy with.
OR
- Dried Butterfly pea flowers - I used the TeeLux brand that I later found out is made in China.
Use pea powder or pea flowers depending on what is available to you.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Decide whether you will use dried butterfly pea flowers or pea powder.
Wash and drain the white rice to remove excess starch. Use a rice cooker pot, as pictured, or a saucpan with a lid.
For the pea powder method, mix in the pea powder into the rice before cooking with the water.
With this method, the cooked rice will have a uniformly blue color.
For the butterfly pea flower method, sprinkle the flowers into the rice cooker pot with water.
Once it's cooked, make sure to mix and fluff the rice to distribute the flowers throughout the rice.
Using 1 teaspoon of powder per 1 cup of jasmine rice yields a deep blue, indigo colored rice, similar to the color of the flower.
If you use dried flowers, you will have chunks of rehydrated edible flowers in the final product.
Hint: If you decide you want blue rice after you've already cooked the rice, or have leftover rice, you can also simply mix in the powder to the warmed, cooked rice.
You can add a little bit of water to moisten the powder to help it spread easier.
It won't make the rice uniformly blue, but some people like the more subtle streaks of blue color it provides.
Variations
- Coconut rice - Substitute half of the water with coconut milk for some coconutty flavor. Topping with toasted coconut shreds would be fun too.
- Shades of Blue - Vary the amount of butterfly pea powder you use from ¼ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per cup of dried rice, depending on how blue you want your rice.
Equipment
- Rice cooker or a cooking pot (at east 2 qt) with a lid.
Storage
- Cooled rice can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container.
- Freeze for up to a month in an airtight container.
Helpful Tips
- The butterfly pea powder works on brown rice too, but the color is best observed on white rice. Adjust the amount of water you use according to the rice you pick. The package should have instructions for the recommended amount of water to use.
- Depending when the rice was harvested and how dry it is, the jasmine rice can take up to 1 ½ c of water per cup of rice. Follow the packaged directions for the amount of water to use.
- ½ teaspoon of butterfly pea powder to 1 cup of rice yields a light blue color. For a deep blue indigo color, use 1 teaspoon of powder. Using dried flowers yields a slightly less uniform color with specks of edible hydrated flowers strewn throughout the rice.
- If you already have cooked rice, you can also mix in the powder to the cooked rice. It works best on hot rice so the residual moisture melts the powder into the rice.
FAQ
Jasmine rice, more than other types of rice, is fragrant, sticky, fluffy, and light. Typically used in Southeast Asian cuisines, and probably most familiar with Thai food, it acts as a delicate canvas for rich, spicy, sweet, and sour curries and stir fries.
Butterfly pea flowers add powerful antioxidants known as anthocyanins to your rice. According to Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide, these "combat inflammation and a host of other ailments, including high blood pressure, immune-system issues, and even certain types of cancer. None of this is new to Southeast Asians, especially practitioners of Ayurveda, who have used thie blossom medicinally for hundreds of years."
To some the taste is indistinguishable from the rice. To others it lends a mild tea like flavor, with herbal floral notes of chamomile and a little richness like fermented oolong.
Related
Looking for other vegetarian recipes? Try these:
Pairing
Recipe
Butterfly Pea Flower Rice (Rice Cooker or Stovetop)
Ingredients
- 1 c jasmine rice or other white rice of your choice, see Note 1
- 1 ¼ c water up to 1 ½ c water, see Note 2
- ½ teaspoon butterfly pea flower powder or ⅛ c dried butterfly pea flowers, see Note 3
Instructions
- Wash the rice to remove excess starch. A rule of thumb for washing is to cover the rice with about 2 inches of water, swirl 10 times with your hand, drain and repeat twice more.
- Add water to the rice cooker pot or saucepan. Add the pea powder or flowers and stir gently to combine.
- Cook in the rice cooker if using. Once it's done, uncover and stir gently to fluff up the rice.
- For stovetop directions, add the drained rice and measured water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower the heat to a bare simmer and cover. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the rice is cooked through. Turn off the heat, cover, and let rest for 5-10 minutes so the rice can absorb any excess steam. Uncover and stir gently to fluff the rice grains.
Notes
- The butterfly pea powder works on brown rice too, but the color is best observed on white rice. Adjust the amount of water you use according to the rice you pick. The package should have instructions for the recommended amount of water to use.
- Depending when the rice was harvested and how dry it is, the jasmine rice can take up to 1 ½ c of water per cup of rice. Follow the packaged directions for the amount of water to use.
- ½ teaspoon of butterfly pea powder to 1 cup of rice yields a light blue color. For a deep blue indigo color, use 1 teaspoon of powder. Using dried flowers yields a slightly less uniform color with specks of edible hydrated flowers strewn throughout the rice.
- If you already have cooked rice, you can also mix in the powder to the cooked rice. It works best on hot rice so the residual moisture melts the powder into the rice.
Nutrition
Food safety
- Cooked rice can be especially susceptible to food poisoning due to Bacillus Cereus spores that remain after cooking. This leaflet from the University of California provides instructions for storing and reheating rice.
- Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
- Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat.
- Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods.
- Never leave food that is still cooking unattended.
- Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
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