The Fruity Ingredient You Should Try Adding To White Rice

White rice can be tricky. On one hand, this grain is a blank canvas and just waits for a cook to customize it to make it their own. On the other hand, the staple has the potential to be overwhelmingly bland and boring. According to The Mirror, if white rice falls into the latter category, it most likely means you didn't properly season and herb your grains prior to cooking. Luckily, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has a solution — infuse the rice while cooking to give the staple some extra flavor. Just make sure to not wait. Ramsay revealed that if you wait until after you cook your rice to add the seasonings, you end up with an unfamiliar texture in your dish. 

Finding the right flavor to imbue this ingredient with seems challenging, but one fruity add-in can up your white rice game and turn this often-shunned and belittled side dish into a star attraction of your meal. What most adventuring seeking cooks will love about this seasoning is the fact that you probably already have it in your refrigerator waiting to be consumed each morning at breakfast.

Per The Spruce Eats, try cooking your white rice in orange juice. The citrus flavor enhances rice and takes it to a whole new level of deliciousness. The cooking site suggests that O.J. not only brightens the flavor and taste of the grain but elevates the appearance of your rice as well. While they recommend freshly squeezed oranges to achieve the perfect flavor, they also note that a commercial brand of unsweetened orange juice can work in a pinch.

Global Table Adventure notes that rice made with orange juice is actually a popular dish in Trinidad and Tobago and its sweetness is the perfect yin to the spicy yang of some of the mouthwatering dishes served across the Caribbean nation. The site notes that the orange flavoring is not mild when you cook your rice in it and suggests diluting the orange juice if you hope for something a little less tangy. The Spruce Eats goes on to share that citrus-flavored rice pairs well with everything from pork to seafood to poultry. They also suggest cooking your pasta and potatoes using this orange juice trick. With a bit of this tangy juice, you might never look at rice the same way again.