Leftover Brine Is All You Need To Really Kick Rice Up A Notch

Fermented foods, from regular pickles to pickled red onions and kimchi, have been all the rage in recent years. They not only taste delicious but are full of beneficial probiotics and vitamins. However, if you are a fermented food maker, enjoyed — or both — you've probably had to dump quite a bit of brine (pickling juice) down the drain. However, there are plenty of ways to use leftover pickle juice. One option you may not have heard about is adding brine to your rice.

White rice, when cooked in plain water, doesn't have a distinctive flavor. Instead, it picks up the flavors of everything around it. The neutral flavor profile of rice is wonderful — and is one reason we love rice — but it can be boring when eaten on its own. Infusing white rice with brine from any pickled vegetable is a great way to add complexity to a dish. Depending on the type of brine you use, it can elevate even the simplest recipes to a new level. 

There are a few ways to use leftover pickling brine in your rice. The first method involves cooking rice in brine instead of water. With this method, you can replace all or some of the water with brine and cook your rice however you would normally, either on the stove or in a rice cooker. The more you like a brine, the more you can add. However, be careful with spicier varieties, like banana pepper brine or fermented chiles from homemade hot sauces.

The second method involves storing the brine in the fridge and drizzling it onto a rice dish after it has been cooked. The main benefit of this method is that if the brine is set on the table as a condiment, every person can decide how much they would like to add. Bon Appétit Test Kitchen Manager Brad Leone from "It's Alive" calls this a "table brine" and likes to add fermented chile juice to many of his dishes.

Any brine can be used to cook and flavor rice, but here are some great examples to help you get started. If you are a pickle lover, then pickle brine butter crunch rice is a must-try. In this dish, rice is infused with pickle juice before being cooked on a butter-coated cast iron skillet until crispy. You can also infuse your rice with olive brine to add another level of flavor to dishes from the Mediterranean or Middle East.

Spice lovers will absolutely enjoy the interesting sour-but-hot flavor that fermented chile brines add to rice. Rice infused with chile brine is perfect as a base for burritos, beans and rice, or New Orleans dirty rice. For those who aren't fans of the more sour notes in brine, we recommend trying artichoke juice. This ingredient will make your rice more complex, but not in a way that overwhelms your senses or palate. Other options to experiment with include caper brine, feta cheese brine, and sauerkraut brine.