A recipe for a simple, delicious buttery middle eastern vermicelli rice dish made with toasted vermicelli pasta and white rice. A fantastic way to switch up the type of rice side you serve up!
Table of Contents
What is Vermicelli Rice?
Vermicelli rice is a middle eastern rice dish made of rice and toasted vermicelli pasta noodles. Although it is also known as Lebanese rice it is also made in Turkish cuisine as well.
It is essentially a rice pilaf, which is seasoned with butter and salt and is absolutely delicious and very easy to make.
To get that buttery flavor, vermicelli pasta noodles are first toasted in a bit of butter before it is steamed with the rice. The toasted noodles add extra texture, saltiness (from toasting it in salted butter), and a buttery and nutty flavor.
Ingredients for Vermicelli Rice Pilaf
- Rice - For this vermicelli rice recipe, I used jasmine rice since this is always what I have at home but you can also use basmati rice as well.
- Vermicelli Pasta - this is a type of pasta that you can find at middle eastern supermarkets. It's not the same as vermicelli noodles, which are made of rice. If you cannot find this, you can substitute this with angel hair pasta, crushed up into small pieces.
- Butter - For this dish, I like using salted butter but if you don't have salted butter, unsalted butter is fine just add a bit more salt to the finished dish and adjust this to your taste.
- Water/Broth - I like making this vermicelli rice dish with water, but you can use chicken broth or vegetable stock as well.
How to Make Vermicelli Rice
Step 1: Rinse and Soak the Rice (This is very important)
Vermicelli rice is never mushy or clumpy. To get this result, it's important to rinse out the excess starch from the rice as well. This will produce less starchy rice so you get individual whole rice grains and not a mushy soft rice dish.
Once you have finished rinsing the rice, it is very important to soak the rice for 20-30 minutes in order for the rice to cook all the way through evenly.
Step 2: Toast the Vermicelli Pasta Noodles to Give them More Flavor
Here is where the flavors all come from. The butter and the toasting of the vermicelli pasta. It is very easy to burn the noodles, so keep a close eye on them and once they turn brown, quickly add the rice in to cool the pan down to stop the browning of the noodles.
If you notice a few very burnt noodles, pick them out but if your whole batch of noodles is burnt then you may have to make a new batch again.
Step 3: Steam the Rice
Once the vermicelli pasta noodles are toasted, drain the rice and add it to the pot with the pasta and toast it for a few seconds to coat the grains with the butter.
Then add in the water and let it simmer on low heat for 10-12 minutes with the lid on.
Step 4: Let the Rice Steam
Another very crucial step is to let the rice steam untouched for 15-20 minutes untouched after it is done cooking once you have removed it from the heat. (Make sure you move the pot completely off the stovetop burner, off to the side.)
This allows the rice to soak up the rest of the water and cool a bit before you fluff up the starches. When the rice is freshly cooked, hot, and very moist - any type of fluffing will create a glueiness that will give you that mushy texture.
Tips
- Try not to burn the vermicelli pasta while you are toasting it and discard any burnt pieces you find. You want to cook it until it is a light golden brown.
- To make this a healthier dish, you can substitute the butter for oils like avocado oil.
How to Use a Rice Cooker to Make Vermicelli Rice
You can actually make this in a rice cooker as well. Make the rice the way you normally do in the rice cooker (rinse your rice first, but no need to soak your rice). In a frying pan, toast the vermicelli pasta with butter. Pour the butter and toasted noodles into the rice cooker with a bit of salt and turn it on! Just make sure you don't stir the fresh hot rice right away. Let it cool a bit so you don't end up making it sticky.
How to Serve This
I love serving vermicelli rice as a side dish with Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew), instead of serving it with plain rice. It adds a lot more flavor and additional texture as well.
If you have a lot of extra vermicelli rice left over, you can use it to make delicious fried rice as well!
FAQs
Vermicelli rice is made of rice and vermicelli noodles which have been toasted in butter (or olive oil).
Rice is usually cooked with plain water, but pilafs are cooked with broths and a lot more flavorings like herbs, spices and salt.
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Recipe Card
Vermicelli Rice
Joyce's Recipe Notes
- Try not to burn the vermicelli pasta while you are toasting it and discard any burnt pieces you find. You want to cook it until it is a light golden brown.
- To make this a healthier dish, you can substitute the butter for oils like avocado oil.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup long-grain rice
- ½ cup vermicelli pasta
- 2 ¼ cup water (or broth)
- ½ onion (optional)
- 2 tablespoon salted butter
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Rinse and Soak the Rice
- Rinse the rice in cold water until the water is clear. Soak the rice for no less than 30 minutes
- Once the rice has finished soaking, drain it and set it aside. The rice should look less translucent and somewhat opaque.
Toast the Vermicelli Pasta
- Heat up a pot on medium heat with the oil
- (Optional) Add the onions in and brown it
- Add in the butter and the vermicelli pasta and toast it for 3 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure to watch it, they burn easily
Cook the Rice
- Once the vermicelli pasta is brown, add the rice and salt to the pot and mix the rice so that the butter coats each grain.
- Add the water to the pot and let it come to a boil.
- Once it starts simmering, turn the heat down to low and give it one quick stir and let it simmer for 10-12 minutes with the lid on. It is important to keep the lid on at this point so that the rice cooks properly.
- After the rice is done, try one of the grains of rice to make sure it has cooked all the way through. If it hasn't continue to cook it for 1-2 more minutes.
Let the Rice Steam
- When it is done, turn off the heat and move the pot away from the burner, and set it aside. Keep the lid on the pot and let it steam for about 20 minutes undisturbed.
- After 20 minutes has passed, remove the lid and fluff it gently with a fork and serve it! 🙂
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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Makos (@thehungrybites) says
A good toasting is always worth it!
Joyce says
I totally agree! 🙂
heather (delicious not gorgeous) says
oooh this sounds like a tasty rice variation! i'm with you and get bored with rice easily, so this sounds awesome. speaking of which i got chicken rice (just the rice cooked with chicken-y goodness but no actual visible chicken) at a kind of fancy and definitely overpriced restaurant the other night, and that might have been my favorite thing there lol. SO GOOD.
Joyce says
Oh oh OH! I love that stuff that chicken-y goodness, sometimes I throw chicken into my rice cooker just to get that flavour...ahhh I want some now! hahaha
Josie says
This is a new creation of recipe mix with rice and vermicelli. It is simple and easy. I love the way you have such a bright idea. Thanks you.
Joyce says
Thank you for your kind words! 🙂