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I know that all types of rice need soaking, but sometimes there are water shortages and I would like to skip this step to save water. How can I cook Basmati rice without a separate soaking step?

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    Are you talking about the kind of "soaking" where you add the already correct amount of water, let it stand for half an hour or so, then turn up the heat, and cook it as normally? Probably not - takes the same amount of water as cooking it right away then letting it steam (and I think the soaked version tastes better). Or are you talking about a cleaning process that uses multiple changes of water?
    – rackandboneman
    Nov 3, 2018 at 21:22

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Basmati doesn't need to be soaked, and anyway the water that gets absorbed in soaking would get absorbed in boiling instead. This is because the rice needs to do two things: hydrate, and heat, and the amount it needs to hydrate is fixed.

Rinsing is common and is much more wasteful of water than soaking. In fact if you measure the water, and soak then boil covered in the same water, all the water you use a ends up consumed (except a tiny amount lost to evaporation). 2:1 water:rice by volume should be about right for basmati, and cook gently.

Rinsing affects the surface starch, and it takes quite a lot of water to remove enough starch to prevent stickiness. You have to either tolerate some stickiness or find a good way to reuse the rinsing water, if you're going to save this. I wouldn't want to give too much starchy water to plants, though you could certainly give them some. It should be possible to use this water in cooking, to add to dishes that need a little thickening, but it shouldn't be stored for long.

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    Personally, I have been cooking with 1.5:1 water:rice and it always works great (accordingly to Gordan Ramsey's suggestion).
    – Gonçalo Peres
    May 13, 2020 at 12:06
  • It's not clear without wasting time watching the video whether the method as described by @GonçaloPeres is by weight or by volume
    – Chris H
    Nov 28, 2022 at 13:31
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Soaking rice speeds up the cooking by kick-starting the absorption of water before the rice even enters the pot. By letting rice soak for 30 minutes or so, you can reduce the cooking time of most rice varieties by about 20 percent. Soaking rice can also affect the flavor of the finished dish. Acetylpyrroline, the flavor component in aromatic rice varieties (such as jasmine, basmati, wild pecan, Wehani, and Texmati) that is mainly responsible for their characteristic popcorn-like aroma, dissipates during cooking. The longer your rice is over the heat, the less aromatic it will be. So by soaking the rice and shortening the cooking time, you get more flavorful results.

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With basmati you can get great results without soaking or pre-rinsing, put rice and salt in a pan with plenty of boiling water, cook until tender, drain through colander, pour over a kettle full of boiling water to remove any excess starch and it's ready, no stickiness at all.

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  • This method works indeed, it is how my mother usually cooks it. It won't help the original poster though, who has to work around water shortages.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Nov 28, 2022 at 17:47

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