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Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

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5 from 4 votes

Forget Chipotle – make cilantro lime brown rice at home! Fluffy brown rice gets an upgrade with a healthy dose of lime and cilantro. Pair it with Mexican grilled corn and a strawberry basil margarita!

Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

Whitney said: “Love this brown rice recipe, I prep it early in the week and use it in bowls throughout the week! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Recently my father asked me how I like to prepare brown rice, and it was a nice reminder of one of my favorite side dishes: Cilantro Lime Brown Rice!

It's super easy, light in texture and goes with a seemingly endless number of meals!

Here are a few of my favorites meal pairings:

  • Served under a plate of grilled chicken and grilled pineapple
  • Inside an overstuffed burrito filled with steak, black beans, corn, guacamole and cheese (or in a homemade burrito bowl!)
  • Alongside kale sautéed with garlic
  • In a bowl topped with mexican grilled corn (and copious amounts of cotija cheese)
  • Or by itself with a wedge of lime!
Chopped cilantro

Do you love or hate cilantro?

I just love the smell of fresh cilantro. It's refreshing and evokes the thought of summer grilling (probably because the first thing I do when the weather warms up is grill corn and slather it with cheese and cilantro).

There are some people who really, really, really hate cilantro. It was a running joke at my last job that two of the women I worked had “the cilantro disease” – they both thought cilantro tasted like soap and refused to go near any food that had cilantro on it.

For the longest time I thought they were both just being dramatic, but then I saw an article about how it's a real thing! Did you know about this?

Apparently people who can't stand the taste of cilantro have sensitive olfactory-receptor genes that pick up the smell of aldehyde chemicals that exist in both cilantro and soap, and thus to them cilantro tastes like soap. That's crazy!

I'm so happy that I do not have such a sensitivity because I freaking love cilantro.

Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

Is brown rice healthier than white rice?

Generally speaking, yes. But largely it's because white rice is sort of nutrient-neutral because of the processing it goes through.

Brown rice contains less sodium than white rice, and has the bonus of also containing natural nutrients like potassium, fiber, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, and manganese.

A few tips for making cilantro lime rice

  • I love making a big pot of this rice and them divvying it up into separate containers to use as a side with different meals throughout the week. Weekly meal prep FTW!
  • If you're lucky enough to have a rice cooker, feel free to make it with that – but since I don't have one my instructions are written for the old school saucepan method.
  • I also love to make mine with an abundance of lime: fresh lime juice in the water I'm prepping the rice in, lime juice and lime zest when I mix it all together. ALL THE LIME. If you're not as into lime as much as I am, feel free to cut back wherever you see fit.
Cilantro Lime Brown Rice

Behind the scenes

Total aside: Ever wondered what it looks like behind the scenes of these food photo shoots?

Why don't I show you, because sometimes I'm in the middle of shooting and I have this moment of, “Really, Leslie? Really?” and this was one of those moments – but to prove it's not completely ridiculous (okay, fine – it is, but humor me), it resulted in this photo next to it.

Worth it!

What to serve with cilantro lime brown rice

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Cilantro Lime Brown Rice (Chipotle Copycat)

5 from 4 votes
Forget Chipotle – make cilantro lime brown rice at home! Fluffy brown rice gets an upgrade with a healthy dose of lime and cilantro.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients
 

Instructions

  • In a medium saucepan, bring rice, water, butter and juice of 1 lime to a boil over high heat. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Let it cook, undisturbed, for 40 minutes.
    1 cup (190 g) brown rice
    2 cups (473 ⅙ g) water
    2 tablespoons unsalted butter
    Juice of up to 2 limes
  • Leave the lid on and remove from heat to let it steam an additional 10 minutes.
  • While rice finishes cooking, roughly chop the cilantro and zest 1 lime.
    1/3 cup (5 ⅓ g) fresh cilantro
    Zest of 1 lime
  • Fluff finished rice with a fork. Add juice of remaining lime, cilantro, garlic, salt and lime zest and stir to combine.
    1 1/2 teaspoons (1 ½ teaspoons) garlic salt
  • Serve immediately, and with a lime wedge if you feel so inclined. Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 222kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 930mg | Potassium: 136mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 265IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition Disclaimer

The provided nutrition information is generated by an automatic API and does not take variations across specific brands into account. This information is provided as a general guideline and should not be treated as official calculations. Learn more here.

Recipe created by Leslie Kiszka

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4 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I didn’t like brown rice u til I had chipotle rice and I started looking for a recipe. I will prepare this one

  2. 5 stars
    Love this brown rice recipe, I prep it early in the week and use it in bowls throughout the week!

  3. Thanks for this recipe, Kiddo. I’ll be going to the store today to get limes and cilantro!