Rice Porridge With Squash and Brown Butter Recipe (2024)

I searched for best kind of rice to use for Asian rice porridge and found a comprehensive guide for various methods, including brown rice. The trick appears to be either soaking the brown rice for 8 hours ahead of cooking or breaking the brown rice down with a food processor, being careful not to turn it into powder. You could do both. It also recommended freezing white rice for 4 to 8 hours which speeds up cooking and contributes to creaminess. Search on "What to Cook Today" site.

Seasoned means “salting” that’s all. This is a gorgeous dish. Suggest subbing coconut milk for half and half and fish sauce for salt.

Not a note but a question....can you use brown rice and get similar results?

Here's an alternative method for step 2 that's much easier and just as fast.Heat the oven to 400. Halve the squash and place face-down, without removing the seeds, on an oiled baking sheet. Roast until tender all the way through. Turn pieces over to cool a bit, then use a spoon to remove the seeds and scoop out the soft flesh.

Fantastic winer food hygge! Adapted for a vegan version - in place of the butter used a combination of hazlenut and olive oils with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast - and some coconut milk in place of the half & half. Topped it all off with some crispy baked tofu! All to say,my husband said he could eat this once a week! Delicious!

Amazing. I made this with leftover farro and chopped up pickled dilly beans, onions, and jalapeños. Served it with chicken and broccoli raab. The tastes all together were euphoric. My (chef) husband said he could eat a version of this dish ever day!

Looks great and I’ll definitely try this. Serendipitously, I sat down to read this with a bowl of leftovers I’d just culled from the refrigerator: puréed squash, quinoa with diced sautéed onions, and an adouille sausage. Surprisingly good. This kind of squash/porridge combination is a great place for exploration!

This was delicious, but I was concerned about the nutritional content of the recipe as written. 700+ calories for a bowl of porridge is intense! I used greek yogurt in place of the half and half, adding a splash of oat milk to thin it. And I used a half a stick of browned butter instead of the stick and a half the recipe calls for. I think the flavor that the browned butter brings to the dish is important, but there are other ways to get the creamy texture. Even with the subs it was yum!

Brown rice doesn't have as much starch, so the porridge it makes will be a lot looser. You can kind of mimic the texture of white rice porridge by adding more water, but your grains won't be al dente. It really depends on the kind of brown rice you're using (short/long grain, etc). Whatever kind you have, cook it like risotto (adding one ladle/cup of water at a time until absorbed) to check how much liquid you need to get to the consistency you want. Good luck!

I'm pretty sure that brown rice would not produce the same consistency or flavor as polished rice does for this dish.That doesn't mean that you cannot produce a fine porridge using brown rice or, as another reader attested, substuting faro instead, but I think that it is encumbent upon the cook to make the dish as described before seeking variation.

I made this as written when my husband was toothless with only partials for chewing. This savory pudding was not only perfect fare for him, but complex with deep flavors and textures. Puréed the pickled veggies for him. For me the crunch and sweet/sour of the pickles added to the depth of the dish.

This was pretty disappointing. It felt like way too much half and half and butter, overall extremely rich. The squash flavor got muddled and I couldn't taste the brown butter that smelled amazing when it was on its own. I mostly just ate the pickled vegetables but yea I would not bother making this again. Would have been better as a standard kanji with savory toppings.

Some clues as to preferred vegetables to pickle would be helpful. And how.

sorry- this is not a keeper in my view. I let it sit for 7 hours in the frig Then as I combined the rice and squash, I added slivers of left over pork chop, crystilized ginger, diced onion, and oyster sauce, a bit of sesame oil with diced bell pepper and pickles on top. It tasted good enough but the texture was exactly as described--porriage. Just too gloppy for my dinner. If I did all this work again I would turn it into a thick soup, but this would make alot of soup.

Great recipe as is, but the addition of bite-sized, velevetized, poached chicken thighs or breast does not come amiss.

Opened a jar of picked herring and onions to top it off - divine!

This sounds like a lovely recipe, but what is half-and-half?

The only thing wrong with the dish is I would eat it all in one sitting!

Is it dramatic to call this purée a revelation? So good. I had sage on hand and decided to fry some in the butter as it browned, then removed the crispy leaves to use as an autumnal garnish. I made it again but steamed the squash in the microwave to save time (it lost some of its depth but the browned butter still gave the final dish some caramelized notes) and served over polenta. I’m thinking my leftovers will make a fine savory oatmeal…

This was delicious, but I was concerned about the nutritional content of the recipe as written. 700+ calories for a bowl of porridge is intense! I used greek yogurt in place of the half and half, adding a splash of oat milk to thin it. And I used a half a stick of browned butter instead of the stick and a half the recipe calls for. I think the flavor that the browned butter brings to the dish is important, but there are other ways to get the creamy texture. Even with the subs it was yum!

Could use coconut milk instead of half and half

...and half-and-half commercially is milk with corn syrup, not exactly half cream and half milk. 1/4 creasm; 1/2 milk. Or if you really want to be eco-conscious use a non-dairy version--but read the label!!!

Since winter squash are not exactly easy to peel, and since you’re roasting them anyway, why not just cut the squash into manageable pieces, roast it, then scoop out the flesh?Obviously there is less ‘brownable’ surface area, but is it sufficient to make a noticeable difference?

OMG, this is sublime. A bit of a faff to prepare with all the moving parts, but so delicious. I suspect it's all the brown butter. I am so glad I doubled the recipe! I tinily diced some pickled okra for the top, which is lovely. I also cooked some Italian turkey sausage, which didn't really make it for me as a topping (to my great surprise, I love sausage). I found that less was more with the subtle, creamy glory of this dish.

Add a fresh branch of thyme into the butter while browning it. Remove the thyme & let It cool on paper towels. When you’re ready to eat your squash porridge, you now have crispy buttery thyme leaves to top your bowl with!I like to eat mine for breakfast with a fried egg on top.

The pickled veggies are essential for dinner, but if you leave them off, this dish makes a delicious (albeit rather rich) breakfast.

Not worth the trouble. Squash is so good on it's own. My husband didn't like it at all.

Trying to peel raw kabocha squash is next to impossible. The peel can be eaten but might not make for a very pretty puree color.

I made this tonight. Last night I cooked white jasmine rice. The rice looked blah after adding cold water today so I added a splash of white wine to reheat over a very low flame, and that got it going. I did just 4 oz (1 stick of butter) and all butternut squash because that's what I had. I quick pickled red onion and radish while the squash cooked and tossed a bit of sage in the brown butter pan. I added a lot of black pepper and... it was delicious! Savory, sour, a little salty & sweet!

Here's an alternative method for step 2 that's much easier and just as fast.Heat the oven to 400. Halve the squash and place face-down, without removing the seeds, on an oiled baking sheet. Roast until tender all the way through. Turn pieces over to cool a bit, then use a spoon to remove the seeds and scoop out the soft flesh.