How is instant rice made?

--Lindsay

Instant rice is also known as minute rice rice.  It is made by fully cooking regular rice and then dehydrating it to remove most of the moisture.  Because it has already been cooked, all that is necessary to prepare instant rice is to simply rehydrate it with hot water.

Cup for cup of cooked product, instant rice has about 80% of the calories, carbohydrates and protein.  Other nutrients show up in even lower proportions, likely due to loss during processing.

Personally, I find it lacks most of the flavor of rice that is cooked the traditional way and has a "cardboardy" texture.  Given that most meals take  more than 20 minutes to prepare, it is easy enough to start rice cooking the old-fashioned way before preparing whatever is being served with it.  To me, it is well worth the effort for the added flavor.