I’ve been on a breakfast kick lately, trying my hand at different kinds of granola, muesli, hot porridge-style cereals, pastries, and even bagels. All the experimenting reminded me of one of my favorite breakfasts as a kid: rice cereal (or risgrynsgröt in Swedish). Now, don’t be fooled—when I say “rice cereal”, I’m not talking about Rice Krispies 😉.
This Swedish porridge is sometimes served at the Christmas Smorgasbord, though in my family, we opted for Swedish Rice Pudding around the holidays and served this porridge for breakfasts throughout the year.
There are two methods to making this delicious, hot cereal. This is the fresher, more common version in Sweden. The second method is to use already cooked rice as your base, which is a great way to use up leftovers! Both are delicious, but today, I’ll be coving the “from scratch” method.
Risgrynsgröt directly translates as rice grain porridge. This “low and slow” cooking of the rice in milk makes it so creamy and delicious.
There’s no sugar in the recipe, so any sweetness is added at the end by each individual in the form of cinnamon and sugar. We also like to add a little dollop of butter to our bowls just before eating it. Mamma would say that adding the butter is not how she ever ate it in Sweden, but, Pappa’s side of the family, which hails from Norway and Sweden both, always add the dollop of butter. So, maybe it’s a Norwegian thing…??? IDK. I just had to keep it in this recipe because it adds a wonderful, buttery flavor! With all these recipes though, just do as you wish—the most important thing is that you enjoy what you’re eating!
And no, this isn’t a Valentine’s day treat 😉. I just happened to have a nice, red table cloth and this cute heart-shaped bowl, so I capitalized on the fact that Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Any reason to celebrate, right?!?! Happy cooking and eating, Lovelies!
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Risgrynsgröt (Rice Cereal)
Yield: about 6 cups (4-6 servings)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups Water
- 1 TBSP Butter
- 1 tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon
- 1 cup Rice (I like to use Jasmine)
- 4 cups Milk of your choice
- Cinnamon/Sugar mixture for garnish
- Butter for garnish (optional)
Directions:
In a thick-bottomed sauce pan (at least 2 quarts in size), add your water, butter, salt, and ¼ tsp cinnamon. Slowly bring it to a boil and then add your rice. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed. You’ll want to stir it often because it will start to stick a little towards the end when most of the water is gone (whisks like these are my favorite tool for projects like this!).
After the water’s been absorbed, add the milk. Leave the burner on low heat and let the milk slowly come to a simmer (it will probably take about 5-10 minutes to do so if the milk is straight out of the fridge).
Let it simmer on low heat until the rice has softened (about 15-20 minutes from when the milk starts to simmer). You’ll want to stay close to the stove, and stir it the mixture ever couple of minutes with a whisk to help prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom the pan. The milk will thicken up some throughout the cooking process.
Once the rice is tender and cooked through, spoon a ladleful into cereal bowls. Place a dollop (about ½ a TBSP) of butter on top of the steaming rice cereal, followed by a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar (however much you put on just depends on how sweet you like your porridge).
Enjoy!
