Why You Should Always Rinse Rice, Plus How to Do It (2024)

Do you know how to rinse rice correctly? You'll want to run water over many pot-bound pantry staples before cooking them, like dry legumes, amaranth, and quinoa. And rice is another food that often gets a rinse. Does it need one? Not necessarily. But should you do one anyway? Absolutely.

"Rinsing" is a bit misleading. In the context of rice, rinsing means exposing grains to water until that water runs clear, a task that requires more of a thorough washing. At first, the tap water will appear cloudy. But soon, that water will lose its milky tint and turn clear as a windowpane. When it does, you're done rinsing.

What Types of Rice Need to be Rinsed

As a general rule, you should rinse all types of rice before cooking, including long grain, medium grain, short grain, brown, white, and so on. Rinsing rice ensures you will remove any debris, dust, or other harmful substances that may have snuck into the bag. This advice applies to all sources of rice as well—bulk, small batch, bins, and minute rice.

And don't worry about removing the starch if you're making sticky rice, either. Rinsing rice before cooking doesn't altogether remove the starches necessary for the rice to stick together; it only removes the impurities and other remnants that may have come along for the ride from the source.

Rinsing vs. Soaking

Rinsing and soaking rice have two completely different purposes, so the terms shouldn't be used interchangeably. While rinsing rice removes debris that may be mixed in with your rice, soaking rice is a specific technique you can use to cut down on cooking time.

Soaking rice can also serve another purpose—reducing arsenic. Arsenic seeps into rice crops more than any other grain, and rinsing the rice doesn't really cut it as far as removing the chemical. However, cooking rice does remove 40 to 60 percent of the arsenic, and soaking rice before you cook it can remove up to 18 percent more.

Does Rinsing Rice Affect Its Nutrients?

In a nutshell, yes, rinsing rise reduces some of its nutrient content. The nutrients that are most affected by rinsing are the water-soluble vitamin B. Enriched white rice and kinds of rice sprayed with vitamins that are lost during milling, often referred to as "fortified rice," are particularly susceptible to nutrient loss. However, the benefits of rinsing your rice far outweigh the drawbacks, so don't stop because of the nutrient loss.

Why Should You Rinse Rice Before Cooking?

There are a few reasons to rinse rice.

1. To clean. Rice goes through many steps in its journey from paddy to pot. Over time, it's likely to pick up some dirt and dust. So let your tap water clean your rice, washing away all but the grains.
2. To hydrate. The second reason to rinse rice stems from the nature of bagged rice. It's slightly dehydrated. Rinsing kick-starts the process of rehydration, allowing grains to start absorbing water, steadily plumping up some.
3. To de-starch. The third reason to rinse rise is probably the most unexpected, yet maybe the most important. As rice goes through processing and shipping, a starchy residue comes to coat the exterior of each grain. This fine coating consists of very tiny powdery bits of other rice, exteriors slightly ground to pieces as the grains jostle in the bag. When you mistakenly cook rice with this residue intact, rice gains a slightly gooey texture, and it develops a sticky weight that isn't ideal. Rinsing rice washes this residue away.

For these reasons, giving the rice a quick-but-careful rinsing can improve your final product in a way that isn't huge but isn't small either. By rinsing, you can be sure that the rice is clean, properly hydrated, and well-textured.

The Best Approaches for Rinsing Rice

The process is pretty straightforward—no guesswork is needed. There are many ways to rinse rice. Here, we recommend two.

Both methods work, and for the second, using your hand to agitate the rice creates a tactile, sensory experience. Also, you seem to be able to use less water, as you aren't continually letting water pour from the tap until your rice is fully rinsed.

Once you've rinsed, cook. The ratio of rice to water varies but usually hovers around 1.5 cups of water for every cup of rice.

Bottom line: rinsing rice requires almost zero effort and can improve your rice noticeably. It's the kind of small, non-obvious kitchen step that, worked into your routine together over time with other similar steps, can greatly enhance your cooking. (And we're here for that.)