Adlai is an excellent low-glycemic alternative to rice. It has a nice texture that is slightly chewy yet firm and al-dente to the bite--like rice shaped pasta grains. A great ingredient to salads, any soup favorites or stew recipes! Here’s a tasty one for you to try for your family this week.

INGREDIENTS

1 coconut milk from 1 medium sized coconut grated and expeller-pressed)
2 small garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3 medium shallots, chopped
1/2 chile (siling labuyo), de-stemmed, sliced and seeded
2 1/2 teaspoons fine salt
1 tsp curry powder
5 cups water
3 cups or 15 oz cooked Adlai grains

DIRECTIONS

Saute onion in coconut oil until translucent and soft. Add garlic, shallots and chile and saute for another 5 minutes. Add curry powder, and the coconut milk. For the coconut milk, you can get it canned, but fresh is always the best.

You can get the freshest coconut milk by getting meat grated and expeller-pressed at your local wet market or grocery stores. If your local market does not do this, buy the meat grated instead, and at home, add 1 cup of warm water, and manually squeeze out the fiber to extract the milk.

Taste the broth and adjust to your liking. Add adlai grains and simmer on low heat until tender, around 30 to 40 minutes. I find soaking the Adlai rice grains at least a half hour pre-cooking cuts cooking time in half. When cooked, you should have white soupy adlai rice that is nice and tender. This is a fantastic main dish, or can also be served as a side for fish or meat dishes. Serve on a nice bowl and top with sliced chiles or toasted coconut.

Enjoy!