20 Rice Side Dishes That Are Easy to Make and Full of Flavor

Written by: Michael Matthews

Fluffy Rice with Potatoes & Peas

An easy way to add veggies to your meal plan is to include them in your rice. This Indian side dish is mildly spiced with turmeric, cumin seeds, and dried curry leaves.

That’s where the flavor comes from, but what makes the dish are the peas and potatoes. They add different textures to the mix, plus nutritional benefits like vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.  

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Butternut Squash Rice Casserole

Rather than worry about making rice as well as a vegetable, prepare them together in this easy casserole. You’ll only need a few minutes of active time in the kitchen to prepare two side dishes in one.

Cook the squash, onion, and garlic, and then mix everything together before putting this rice casserole with parmesan cheese into the oven.

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Mexican Cauliflower “Rice”

If you’re making a lean meal that needs rice to feel complete – like chicken enchiladas or slow-cooked pork pernil – replace the grain with grated cauliflower for a similar feel.

Served plain, cauliflower “rice” won’t exactly pass the test, but once you mix in beans and cilantro, it’s a delicious low-carb rice dish to enjoy with your protein of choice.

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Chicken & Mango Fried Rice

Craving fried rice? Turn it into a whole meal complete with chicken, veggies, and even fresh fruit. With this Caribbean fried rice on the table, you won’t have to serve anything else for everyone to be satisfied.

Or this can be a delicious side dish as part of a family-style dinner with curry, jerk pork, and a simple cabbage slaw.

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Persian Rice Salad

Once you try this savory-sweet rice salad, you’ll want to have it in the fridge all the time, especially since it can be eaten hot or cold.

This easy Persian recipe is quick to make and can be a tasty way to use up leftover rice, whether you cooked it yourself or have takeout taking up space in the fridge. Just add seasoning, shredded carrots, raisins, and almonds. Then dig in.

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Lemon Parmesan Brown Rice

In most cases, it’s better not to compromise the complex carbs to eat white rice. The only problem is often the extra time.

Luckily, there’s par-boiled brown rice – aka minute rice – for both nutrition and convenience. Using the boil-in-a-bag variety means you won’t need nearly an hour to cook a healthy side dish. This fast brown rice recipe takes just 15 minutes.

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Cilantro Lime Rice

Plain rice is, well, plain. Using another cooking liquid can add dimension, but if you just have water, you’ll need to mix in other ingredients.

Some recipes require lots of mix-ins to layer the flavors, but for this one, just add your favorite herb. Cilantro and lime is a classic for Latin American meals. The same basic recipe can be used with other flavor combos like lemon and rosemary, or orange and basil.

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Rice Pilaf with Red Quinoa

Can’t decide what to serve as a side dish? This pilaf includes not just rice, but also quinoa and even pasta. It’s not much harder to make than a box of Rice a Roni, yet the result is a lot tastier without ingredients like hydrolyzed protein and gluten, which are made by boiling foods in hydrochloric acid.

This recipe starts with frying the pasta, then the rice and quinoa, and finishes with cooking all three in broth or water. Add herbs and spices to taste.

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Sweet Potato Rice

In some ways, sweet potato is an ideal starch for a bodybuilding diet – it’s low on the glycemic index, has magnesium and potassium to reduce cramping as muscles recover, and is rich in vitamin A, needed for the body to utilize all that protein you pack into your meal plan.

So you’ll love this Korean rice dish that adds sweet potato to the mix. This is a side you’ll want to wolf down post-workout with a lean meat like chicken or cube steak.

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Easy Fried Tomato Rice

When you think of rice mixed with tomatoes, what comes to mind is probably Mexican food. But in this recipe, tomato paste is mixed into fried rice with fish sauce and sesame oil for Asian flavor.

You could eat this as a small meal, especially since there’s protein from almost all the ingredients: meat, peas, eggs, and the rice itself. Or serve it with braised pork, roast chicken, or baked tofu for larger portions.

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Jollof Rice

Jollof rice is a staple of West African cooking. And no wonder because it’s a one-pot rice dish that’s adaptable depending on what’s in your pantry.

You’ll definitely need some curry powder, tomatoes, peppers. Then you might add veggies like carrots, seasoning such as fresh ginger, and herbs if you have them. Jollof rice can also be cooked with diced chicken breast, or for a quick protein, serve it with canned fish stirred in.

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Indian Mint Rice

This flavorful rice is cooked with a fresh mint sauce. Indian recipes often have a lot of seasoning, but the only hard part is acquiring them all. In this recipe, the herbs, ginger, and garlic are ground into a paste. Them the dry spices are toasted, which means just putting them in a hot pan for a few minutes and watching so they don’t burn.

Similar to how you’d sauté onion and garlic before adding more ingredients for a stir fry, all the seasonings are cooked separately for a couple minutes before moving onto the main steps. After that, this Indian rice can be finished in a pressure cooker or on the stove.

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Spicy Chickpea Rice

For a twist on rice and beans, head to the Middle East by using chickpeas and a delicious blend of spices. There are endless ways to combine the two into a great rice dish. This recipe even adds cubed steak for when you want to serve your lean dinner with extra protein on the side.

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Beer Rice

A quick trick to infuse rice with flavor is to boil it in broth instead of water. But this recipe has another idea – using a bottle of beer for the cooking liquid.

The alcohol will cook out, leaving behind notes of whatever ale, lager, or stout you used. Unless you buy a single bottle, though, you’ll have the better part of a six pack to polish off with friends and family at dinner.

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Sushi Rice Egg Drop Soup

Not all rice side dishes have to be served next to the entrée on your plate. If you have leftover rice, use this recipe to turn it into a simple egg drop soup.

Skip the sake and rice vinegar if your rice is already seasoned for sushi, or use those simple seasonings to turn plain rice into a delicious soup. Customize it with garnishes like nori seaweed, fresh chives, or cilantro.

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Cheesy Asparagus Rice

Since this side dish uses Arborio rice – the kind used to make risotto – the result is a creamy rice. But for this one, you won’t have to stand at the stove and stir.

It’s made like a pilaf instead, so once the ingredients are assembled in the pan, you can leave it to finish for 15 to 20 minutes while you prepare a quick entrée like poached salmon or pan-seared chicken breast.

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Coconut Rice & Beans

When you don’t have much on hand, just rice and beans can become a whole meal. It only takes those two things to make a vegetarian side dish that delivers complete proteins, awesome for when you’re trying to eat cheap.

Rice and beans can be a little plain, but with a few extra ingredients, you’ll have a flavorful side dish that’s inexpensive and nutritious. In this recipe, the rice is boiled in coconut milk, plus a bit of pineapple juice for natural sweetness.

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Cabbage Rice with Saffron

Meatballs and pasta are a classic pairing, so why not meatballs and rice? This Persian take on cabbage and beef can be a whole meal, or you can reduce the servings to enjoy it as a side dish.

Spices like saffron and turmeric set this rich dish, called kalam polow, apart from Eastern European cabbage and beef recipes. And this is just one variation, so it’s adaptable to include other ingredients like tomato paste, or to leave out saffron if you don’t have any in the pantry. Check out Persian Kitchen for more ways to cook it.

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Thai Yellow Curry Rice Pilaf

Prepare this yellow curry rice mix ahead of time, and keep the dry ingredients in the pantry until you’re ready to cook. Splitting the work into two steps makes it a lot easier to prepare a fancy rice dish like this.

With the mix of almonds, cranberries, and curry pre-assembled, you just need the fresh ingredients like cucumber and tomatoes to make this pilaf. For a one-pot meal, cook the curried rice with chicken thighs.

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Chinese Sticky Rice

With pork, shrimp, and mushrooms, this rice dish is a well-balanced meal. But if you’re serving a whole buffet of Chinese food like char sui pork, chili chicken, and sweet and sour shrimp, you’ll want this tasty rice on the table.

Sticky rice can also be vegetarian if needed, although then it won’t have nearly 25 grams of protein per serving.

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