Easy ‘Congee’ Recipe

There’s a reason for those little quotation marks around ‘congee’ in the title of this recipe. It’s because, as some of you may notice from the photographs, I made this version with long grain rice, which does not always produce the more lumpy, porridge-like texture of the original Asian version.

But that’s also because I wanted to show how this recipe can easily be adapted to whatever you have in your cupboards. If you have short grain jasmine or Japanese sushi rice to hand then great, use either of those in place of the long grain in this recipe and you will get an end result that is much mushier (and likely whiter in colour). But if all you’ve got is plain ol’ long grain white rice, then that’s just as tasty and comforting, too.

I also used a very flavourful chicken stock to make mine, which gave the end result a more yellow hue – different stocks will produce slightly different results.

This recipe is easily made vegan by using vegetable stock and topping with spring onions and peanuts, forgoing the popular additions of chicken and/or egg.

Easy ‘Congee’ Recipe

Recipe by Confused JuliaDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

• 1 cup (185g) long grain rice (or jasmine or sushi rice)

• 7 cups (2 litres) stock – either chicken or vegetable

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and slice (optional, but recommended)

• Sliced spring onions, chopped peanuts, sesame oil and soy sauce, for garnish

Directions

• Rinse the rice under cold running water then drain. Add to a large pot along with the stock, sea salt and sliced ginger (if using).
• Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to medium and leave the congee to simmer for at least an hour, or until it is thickened and the rice is extremely creamy (even mushy). Stir occasionally during this time.
• Ladle into bowls, then top with spring onions, peanuts and a drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil.

Notes

• Cooking time may vary depending on the type of rice used, so make sure to keep an eye on it and stir every now and then to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan.