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
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Combine rice and water in a pot. Note: It is best not to use wild rice or brown rice for this recipe.
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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.
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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.
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Remove pot from heat, crack the lid slightly and let cool.
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Spread cooled, cooked rice on cookie sheets thinly so that the rice is no more than 1/4 inch thick.
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Preheat oven to 275 F/135 C and dry the cooked rice for 2 hours.
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Remove dried rice from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Repeat until all the dried rice has been crisped.
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Once cooled, break the homemade rice krispies into individual grains and store in a large glass mason jar in the refrigerator or cool cellar.
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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.
Why are you adding oil to it?Cant we do it without the oil?
It will likely burn if you don’t use oil. Use a healthy fat as suggested in the recipe and you will be fine 🙂
I am curious about why the white rice would need to be soaked. Once the hull is off, the plain rice should be pretty digestible, no?
Also, wondering how long it took you to fry up all of the rice? I tend to look for for fairly quick recipes where the actual work of standing there making the food would be an hour or less.
I know this is an old comment but soaking grains/rice breaks down the phytic acid but is an anti nutrient that prevents you from absorbing certain vitamins and minerals. Phytic acid isn’t bad for you in small amounts because it’s an antioxidant but I soak somethings just to get more nutrients out of it.
I’m not seeing how a denatured protein within rice or wheat can somehow fold into a harmful conformation when extruded. please cite this information with a scholarly peer reviewed article. i want to know where you got that idea. otherwise nice recipe.
Simple chemistry is all that is necessary to define how proteins are denatured at high heat and pressure.
Simple chemistry explains how a protein over 40ºC is denaturalized, which happens to be like all the cooked food. The thing is… how on earth would it magically fold into something else?
This looks great, and I’m all for trying to cook with more fresh ingredients and not using excessive amounts of sugar. But you immediately lost some credibility by shaming GMO foods. GMO foods are one of the few solutions we have to solve world hunger and vitamin deficiency. I might try this recipe using golden rice to add vitamin C to my breakfast without the excess sugar that comes with orange juice. While I’m at it I’ll use a GMO sourced coconut oil as well.
Wondering about using Brown rice instead. Thoughts?
Soo cool ! Thank you !
is it possible to use regular white rice and vegetable oil instead of basmati and coconut oil? coconut up setts my stomach. thank you
Don’t use vegetable oil … it is not designed for high heat. Use avocado oil instead I would suggest if coconut oil bothers you.
Could I substitute sunflower or safflower oil? I have MCAD and I can’t eat Salicylates or high histamine foods or else I may go into anaphylaxis (coconut oil is high sals and avocado oil is high histamine and it might be high sals too).
can I reuse the coconut oil?
Carl
How dry is the rice supposed to be after the oven stage?
What about using corn oil
Corn oil is unhealthy and usually GMO.