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Rice with vermicelli in a white plate. The plate is over an elegan white kitchen towel, that is decorated with 2 vertical light brown stripes on the right side. Over to the top side of the plate, there is a small bowl with vermicelli in it.
Chantal

Rice With Vermicelli

Rice with vermicelli is served alongside many Lebanese dishes. This is a gluten free recipe, but you can also make it with regular vermicelli. I will be mentioning this recipe a lot. So you might want to keep a copy of it in an easily accessible place. This is my son’s favorite rice. He loves it so much that he asks me to make it often. I’ll have to admit, I like it a lot as well even though rice is not my most favorite food in the world.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 38 minutes
Total Time 48 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients Equipment Method Video Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups long grain rice rinsed three times in room temperature water
  • 2 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon salt or to taste
  • 1/3 cup Thin gluten free brown rice spaghetti broken into 1 inch to 1/2 inch small pieces
  • 4 cups and 2 tablespoons water or the amount of water that the rice that you have chosen requires plus 2 tablespoons

Equipment

  • Medium pot
  • Wooden Spoon
  • Measuring cups
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Medium Fine Sieve

Method
 

  1. Place the 2 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil (depending on how much you prefer to use) into the stockpot. Turn the stove onto medium heat and place the rice noodles into the pot. Stir frequently to avoid the rice noodles from burning. Once the rice noodles are golden brown or expanded depending on which type of rice noodles you use (different types behave differently under the same cooking conditions), add in the rice, and salt. Stir fry the rice with the rice noodles for 2 to 3 minutes.
  2. Add in the water into the pot containing the rice. Gently flatten with a wooden spoon. do not try to over stir otherwise the noodles will float to the top. Turn the heat onto high. Cover the pot, and bring it into a rolling boil.
  3. Once the rice is boiling, turn down the heat to medium-low (on my stove I use number 2 for heat), and let cook for 30 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. If you are using an electric stove, you need to transfer the rice onto a different burner and put that one onto medium-low. I usually turn the second one on once I get the rice ready to boil. This way the second burner would have achieved the heat that I want it to be on when I am ready to transfer the rice onto it.
  4. If after the cooking time has passed, all the water is gone, and your rice is still not cooked, that means you should have added more water or perhaps your heat was too high. You can still add more water now, about a ¼ cup or depending how uncooked your rice is, and allow the rice to cook for an extra 10 minutes.  

Video

Notes

You could also use different types of rice other than long grain rice, but I find this type to be the best for this recipe.
You can serve this rice with many Mediterranean dishes, especially with soups and stews. My mom used to make this recipe often for us. We would top it with plain yogurt as a quick lunch or dinner. I actually got so good at making this rice that my mom would always ask me to do it because mine always turned out good.