Artificial Food Coloring Free Herbed Butter Rice
Fluffy, fragrant, and finished with real butter and a handful of fresh herbs, this is the kind of side dish that quietly steals the show at the dinner table. Every ingredient here is exactly what it says it is — rice, water, salt, butter, and garden-fresh parsley, chives, and basil — so there's zero guesswork about hidden dyes or synthetic color additives sneaking into your bowl. Packaged rice blends and seasoning mixes are surprisingly common culprits for artificial coloring, which makes a from-scratch approach like this one genuinely worth the extra few minutes. The technique is simple but deliberate: a gentle boil, a covered steam, and a hands-off rest period that lets the grains cook through without turning gummy. Folding in the butter while the rice is still hot means every grain gets coated in that rich, silky finish before the herbs go in. It's the kind of clean, honest comfort food that pairs with almost anything and never needs a label check.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
- 1 ½ cups long-grain white rice
- 2 ¼ cups water
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh chives, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fresh basil, thinly sliced (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Combine the rice, water, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, uncovered, until the surface is bubbling and the water level has dropped just to the top of the rice, about 3–4 minutes.
- 2
Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover tightly, and cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid during this time.
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