Make homemade rice krispies cereal yourself with leftover cooked rice. A healthier option than artificially fortified, GMO cereals.
Eliminating processed foods from the pantry is a difficult road at first. Probably one of the hardest items to stop buying is the ubiquitous boxed breakfast cereal, without a doubt, America’s favorite way to start the day.
The problems with conventional boxed breakfast cereals like rice krispies are many. Genetically modified ingredients, loads of sugar, additives, and chemicals with plenty of synthetic vitamins added to the mix. This artificial fortification hides a multitude of dietary sins from the consumer examining the nutrition label.
The issue with organic boxed cereal is less clear. Examination of the ingredients for many brands seems harmless enough with just a few whole foods listed.
The apparently healthy label hides a nasty little secret, however. Violent factory processing is required to manufacture it.
Factory Processing Destroys Cereal Grain Proteins
This factory driven process, called extrusion, applies so much heat and pressure to the cereal grains that they actually liquefy. This slurry allows the grains to be quickly and easily shaped into the puffs, flakes, and other shapes that make each cereal distinct.
The manufacturing process used to make boxed cereal is so violent and denaturing that the proteins in the grains are actually rendered toxic and allergenic as a result. This is why whole grain boxed breakfast cereal is shockingly even more toxic than cheap boxed cereals made with white flour — because whole grains are higher in protein.
The more protein, the more toxic the boxed cereal.
What to do?
The good news is that unhealthy versions of processed foods like boxed breakfast cereal can usually be replicated at home using simple preparation techniques which do not denature the food or add toxins like what happens in a factory.
Puffing Rice at Home is Easy!
The recipe below provides an easy way to make rice krispies at home to enjoy as a cereal or to make rice krispies snack bars. The simple process involves blending rice and water, soaking overnight, cooking, and then drying/puffing on the stovetop.
By making your own homemade rice krispies, you can enjoy all the crisp yumminess without taking the risk of developing food allergies or digestive issues from factory-produced versions loaded with toxic grain proteins.
This recipe is best in small batches of 8 servings total. This ensures that you won’t overeat the cereal and it will be a treat to enjoy once or twice a week.
Bonus! If you love this recipe, try these homemade marshmallow krispie bars too!
Rice Krispies Cereal Recipe
Make homemade rice krispies cereal yourself with leftover cooked rice. It is a far healthier option than synthetically fortified, GMO-ridden boxed cereals.
Ingredients
- 2 cups white basmati rice
- 3 cups filtered water
- expeller pressed coconut oil
- 3 Tbl Plain, whole milk yogurt
Instructions
-
Combine rice and water in a pot. Note: It is best not to use wild rice or brown rice for this recipe.
-
Optional step to add extra digestibility to the rice: Stir in yogurt, buttermilk, lemon juice, whey or apple cider vinegar and leave covered on the counter for a minimum of 7 hours.
-
Bring pot to a boil. Cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed.
-
Remove pot from heat, crack the lid slightly and let cool.
-
Spread cooled, cooked rice on cookie sheets thinly so that the rice is no more than 1/4 inch thick.
-
Preheat oven to 275 F/135 C and dry the cooked rice for 2 hours.
-
Remove dried rice from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
-
Heat small pan filled with 1 inch of expeller pressed coconut oil to 375 F/190 C using a digital food thermometer. Take care not to heat the oil higher than this temperature or it will cause free radicals called acrylamides to form in the oil.
-
Break the dried rice into chunks and drop one or two into the frying oil and leave for about 30-45 seconds. You will hear a popping sound as the cooked rice pops like popcorn.
-
When very lightly browned which takes less than a minute, remove the crisped rice from the hot oil with a stainless steel slotted spoon and place on a large plate covered with a clean tea towel to soak up excess oil.
-
Repeat until all the dried rice has been crisped.
-
Once cooled, break the homemade rice krispies into individual grains and store in a large glass mason jar in the refrigerator or cool cellar.
-
Serve homemade rice krispies in a bowl with milk or cream and a whole natural sweetener like sucanat or coconut sugar (where to find). Top with fresh fruit if desired.
Recipe Notes
Jasmine rice may be substituted for basmati rice if desired. Do not use wild rice.
Buttermilk, lemon juice, or ACV may be substituted for the yogurt but the taste of the cereal may be affected slightly.
If you accidentally end up with burnt rice in the first steps, the linked article provides an easy solution.
The homemade rice krispies may also be used to make rice krispies bars for school lunches and snacks. Click here for a homemade marshmallow recipe.
More Homemade Cereals to Try
Love these homemade rice krispies? Here are more healthy versions of boxed store cereals along with healthy rice recipes.
- Wheat or spelt cold breakfast cereal recipes
- Grain free cold breakfast cereal recipes
- Homemade corn flakes cereal recipe
- Perfect yellow rice recipe
- Saffron rice recipe
- Rice cakes recipe
* Why I use white rice instead of brown. This article details how to avoid arsenic contamination in rice.
I just made this and it turned out very very hard (beyond crunchy…kind of felt like I was breaking my teeth while eating!). Has anyone else made this and did it turn out this way? Any tricks? I DID pull out of the oven 15 min early…but I doubt that has too much to do with the outcome. (I used jasmine rice btw). =)
I just got finished making this recipe with 2 different results. Last night I cooked all of the rice in my rice cooker and then transferred it to two cookie sheets which I put in the oven at 275 for 2 hours. It was late so I just left it in the oven overnight. Today I cooked it in coconut oil. The fist batch turned out perfectly. The second batch was too hard. I didn’t have a thermometer to measure the temp that high but I suspect the oil was too hot for the second batch even though I cooked it for less time than the first. Or maybe it was the different positions in the oven since my oven isn’t wide enough to put side by side. The first batch was good enough for me to want to try again.
Nice recipe..
can canola oil be used instead of oil mentioned?
Definitely NOT. Canola oil is extremely unhealthy and not a good choice for any culinary use.
i live in a country where Expeller pressed coconut oil is not available, it will be regular coconut oil. will that be similar as in taste wise or if you can suggest any substitute?
Using virgin coconut oil instead of expeller presseed will give the krispies a mild, coconut-y flavor.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’m 8 weeks pregnant and have been trying for the last few days to find something that sounds appealing to eat. The only thing I can seem to stomach is cold, plain cereal, but I hate to pour my lovely raw milk over GMO crap, and the organic cereal at the health food store is way too expensive for me to justify buying all the time. Plus, the organic stuff is probably just as processed as the “normal” cereal.
This recipe looks super easy and I can’t wait to try it! I’ll probably be using a dehydrator instead of the oven so I’ll let you all know how it turns out.
Hello, Thanks for posting this recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
Can i fry in olive or sunflower oil instead?
Sunflower oil is primarily omega 6 fats, so you can’t fry in it. You can fry in olive oil, but I think the taste would be too strong.
Some companies produce olive oils specifically to bake and fry with. That might help with preventing the olive oil from taking over the flavor.
I make popcorn in microwave using a twisted brown paper bag. Wondering if that would work here instead of frying to pot the rice kernals. Don’t want a fire on my hands of course! Anyone try?
Sucanat is NOT a natural sweetener! It is still a heated, processed sugar that will steal calcium from your body. The ONLY true natural ‘sugar’ (as in made from cane sugar) is Rapadura. EVen evaporated cane juice is bad! Rapadura is not heated to the point that all other processed sugars are and it contains the calcium your body needs to digest it. Also, this recipe looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it!
Stevia is the best and healthiest sweetener by far. Blackstrap molasses is a close second.
This is going to be so much fun to try sometime! Thanks for the great recipe!
Hey Sarah,
I am so excited to try this! I was never a big fan of Rice Krispies as a cereal but I LOVE the Rice Krispy Treats! So I’ll have to pull up your marshmallow recipe too. Thanks for sharing.
I just made these. It is very crunchy…I wonder if white rice is better?
Brilliant! Was wondering if I could reintroduce rice cakes to my son somehow – with out the crazy factory process…