Simple Saffron Brown Rice
by Katie Webster
October 30, 2014 (updated 7/27/22) Jump To Recipe
This is a simple recipe for brown rice seasoned with saffron and smoked paprika, then sprinkled with lots of fresh parsley. It’s a quick and fuss-free version of paella.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Recipe For Simple Saffron Brown Rice
This brown saffron rice was inspired by a Paella my family used to make. We used to make it in a big primary colored paella pan with a bottle of saffron and rice. We’d sauté the onions and garlic, add the spices, Saffron, rice and broth.
I wanted to develop a recipe that was similar to this paella, except I wanted to make a quicker side-dish version. Hence this saffron brown rice. It has onion, saffron, minced garlic, thyme, smoked paprika, lots of vegetable broth and fresh curly parsley.
The brown rice gives the dish a bit more chew, and works really well with the saffron. It’s perfect for weeknight OR weekend dinners, and goes really well with grilled or oven baked chicken, pork, seared shrimp and beef.
It’s both vegan and gluten-free, which makes it the perfect side dish to serve when having guests over. It’s very allergen friendly!
Key Ingredients For This Recipe
Saffron
Saffron is a very specific spice that gives of a yellow tint, withs a sweet and mildly floral flavor. You can find saffron in most grocery stores in the spice isle, however the better the quality the more expensive it will be (like most things). If you can’t find saffron or don’t like it, you can substitute with a little ground turmeric instead.
Brown rice
I used brown rice as a healthier option to white rice, although either will do. Brown rice gives it a little more bite and its nuttiness adds to the flavor of the overall dish.
Additional Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small sweet or red onion
- ½ teaspoon dry thyme
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 ½ cups vegetable broth, such as imagine no-chicken
- ¾ cup chopped parsley
Step-By-Step Instructions to Make This Saffron Rice
Step 1: Cook garlic & onion
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring until fragrant and just starting to brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add onion, stirring to coat. Cook, stirring often until the onion is starting to brown and soften, 3 to 5 minutes.
Step 2: Cook rice
Add the saffron, thyme, smoked paprika and salt and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in the broth and increase the heat to high. Stir thoroughly to make sure the saffron threads are evenly distributed, and bring the broth to a simmer. Add the rice and return to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low or low to maintain a simmer, and cook until the broth has been absorbed and the rice is very tender, 50 to 60 minutes. Remover from the heat and stir in parsley.
FAQs and Expert Tips
Any leftover rice you end up with can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for the next day.
Saffron should taste fresh, florally and sweet. Avoid any saffron that has a plastic or metallic taste. Learn more here in this guide to purchasing saffron.
If the rice is still too tender at the end of the cooking time, add a little extra water, 1/4 cup at a time, and continue cooking, another 5 to 10 minutes.
Additional Rice Recipes to Try
- This Easy Chicken Rice Soup Recipe is made in one pot and finished within 40 minutes.
- My Chickpea Burgers with Brown Rice recipe has fun ingredients like shredded carrots, parsley and a lemon tahini sauce!
- I love this Chicken and Wild Rice Soup for chilly fall days.
- This Chicken and Rice Casserole is simple to make and everyone always loves it.
- This One Pot Chicken and Rice with Spring Veggies couldn’t be easier.
- My Brown Rice and Sweet Potato Salad is made with orange zest, dried cranberries and lots of other goodies.
- Make a batch of this Chicken and Vegetable Stew with Saffron and Preserved Lemon to take a trip to Morocco in your own kitchen!
- If you like rissotto you have to try my Brown Rice Kale Risotto with Cheddar, Brown Rice Pumpkin Risotto and this Cheddar Brown Rice Risotto Peas.
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Simple Saffron Brown Rice
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 5 cups, 4 entree servings or 6 side dish 1x
Description
Simple recipe for brown rice cooked with smoked paprika and saffron. Vegan and gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small sweet or red onion
- 1 teaspoon loosely packed saffron threads, ½ g
- ½ teaspoon dry thyme
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cup brown rice
- 3 ½ cups vegetable broth, such as imagine no-chicken
- ¾ cup chopped parsley
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring until fragrant and just starting to brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add onion, stir to coat. Cook, stirring often until the onion is starting to brown and soften, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add saffron, thyme, smoked paprika and salt and cook, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Pour in broth and increase heat to high. Stir thoroughly to make sure saffron threads are evenly distributed, and bring to a simmer. Add rice, and return to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low or low to maintain a simmer, and cook until the broth has been absorbed and the rice is very tender, 50 to 60 minutes. Remover from the heat and stir in parsley.
Notes
Cooking Tip:
If the rice is not quite tender at the end of the cooking time, add a little extra water, 1/4 cup at a time, and continue cooking, another 5 to 10 minutes.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Side dish
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: Spanish
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 1/4 cup each for an entree serving. 2/3 cup for
- Calories: 164
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 963 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 21 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
Keywords: saffron rice,spanish rice
Katie Webster
Katie Webster studied art and photography at Skidmore College and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. She has been a professional recipe developer since 2001 when she first started working in the test kitchen at EatingWell magazine. Her recipes have been featured in numerous magazines including Shape, Fitness, Parents and several Edible Communities publications among others. Her cookbook, Maple {Quirk Books} was published in 2015. She launched Healthy Seasonal Recipes in 2009. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two teenage daughters and two yellow labs. In her free time, you can find her at the gym, cooking, stacking firewood, making maple syrup, and tending to her overgrown perennial garden.
What a great recipe! Had to add a bit more stock towards the end. Loved by all. I have found my go-to elevated brown rice recipe!
★★★★★
I made the recipe and it was great. I adopted a technique from my mom, also an adventurous and excellent cook. For dishes of this type, she always threw the rice in with the garlic and onion, and cooked it on med. or med. high until at least half of the rice “popped”, by which point the onions and garlic would be done too. The grains turn a more opaque light shade and actually make a little popping or cracking sound. This adds a really interesting nutty flavor, If you “pop” most of the rice you will need to reduce the cooking time a bit.
★★★★★
Hi Karen- I love that idea! It sounds like it only adds more flavor, so I’m sure it’s good! Thanks for the comment and rating!
Great blog! Loved the story :). I made this yummy recipe for dinner last night after deciding to transition over to whole grains from refined…yes, white rice is sadly refined. (I didn’t know!) Instantly, this reminded me of a delicious paella. The flavor was incredible, but I couldn’t help being a bit disappointed by the texture. After about 55-60 min. of cooking (no resting the rice), mine turned out somewhat “wet” and more like a heavy risotto then the fluffy drier rice I was hoping for. I’m not sure what I did wrong, so what is the finished outcome of the texture supposed to be? Is there any way to improve the fluffiness or is brown rice just heavier and wetter? Thanks for posting! This is a brilliant idea and much needed representation of brown rice in a white rice world!
★★★★
Thank you! So glad to hear it. I’m not totally sure but it is possible that your summer was a little lower than mine. The liquid should absorb. In the future, try a slightly hotter burner and keep an eye that it absorbs all the liquid.
I love this recipe! My husband jokes that he lived on yellow rice (the nasty packet kind) before he married me. I’m glad to make this healthy version to serve him (alongside meat and veggies). I’ve been making this recipe for a couple years now. However, I’m addicted to my new Instant Pot. Do you know if this is adaptable? I use a recipe for plain brown rice now that takes 2 cups of rice and 2 and 1/2 cups of water (I use bone broth). I’m going to try to merge both recipes, so we’ll see how it goes as I could not find a saffron brown rice recipe for a pressure cooker… I would totally give this recipe 10 stars if it had adaptations for a pressure cooker or multi-cooker.
★★★★★
I made it in my instant pot last night to go with enchiladas. It was awesome! I used the sautee function for the onions. I added the spices with 2 cups of brown rice and 2 and 1/2 cups of beef bone broth. Set to pressure cook on high for 15 minutes and let it release pressure on it’s own and it was perfect! I also added a little regular paprika, cumin, coriander, chili powder, and oregano (or marjoram). So flavorful!
Big tip: Don’t put the garlic in to “brown” as suggested above. You don’t want to do that or the garlic will get bitter. Sautee the onions first until brown, then add garlic and sautee for 1 more minute before adding spices. Also, toast the rice a bit with the onions, garlic, and spices before adding the broth. Delish!
★★★★★
Thanks Joanna!
I wish I’d known your mother was such a good cook! I would have begged her to teach me. When we all lived in Wycombe, I was trying to branch out and do more “exotic” and flavorful cooking. My mother was a basic cook, though I have never been afraid to make white sauces or tackle a pie crust. Was her mother a good cook? In my family, it seems like good cooks skip generations!
Yes my mom’s mom was also a great cook. She was a pioneer, serving up meals and fancy parties from the pages of Gourmet to her cronies in West Texas. I have heard that though about skipping a generation some times, as if the child reacts to the bad cooking, and takes matter into their own hands as a coping mechanism. Ha ha. Love thinking about all the history there.
I can tell you right now that this recipe is going to become a regular one for me. I’m making an effort to eat more brown rice and I love everything about this version. I even have smoked paprika. I really loved reading about your Dad and your cooking antics with him. Very entertaining!! Great post, Katie!
So glad you liked it Bill. My dad really is one of a kind.
Katie, this brought back soo many memories from my childhood- my mum makes saffron rice as the vehicle to all her Persian dishes- Now I’m craving paella.
I am sure her dishes were better than my Dad’s though. ha ha. Glad to bring back fond memories.
Aw man. Dads are the best aren’t they? Pickle Paella? Um, even as a steadfast lover of pickles I don’t know if I could go down that road!! 😀 This saffron rice sounds wonderful!Oh- and my father-in-law always adds celery to his salads, too! He says he likes the crunch!
I know, I love pickles too, but seriously Dad? Ha ha. Funny about the celery. I love it when he serves it, but I never think to do it on my own. It is kinda good/strange.