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We very much enjoy pancakes or waffles on the weekend in our home. Sometimes, though, it is really nice to break routine and mix things up a bit and try a new variation just for the fun of it! This recipe for rice cakes, or Frittelle di riso, is a great alternative to pancakes and waffles particularly if you have some leftover rice in the refrigerator from dinner the night before.
It is also the healthy alternative to store bought versions, which are almost universally considered a healthfood. Like most fads, however, nothing could be further from the truth.
Why Commercial Rice Cakes Are Not Healthy
Commercial rice cakes are extruded in the same manner as boxed breakfast cereal. The process of extruding a grain in a factory is so violent and high in temperature and pressure that the fragile proteins in the grains are completely denatured. This renders them toxic and allergenic from the ordeal.
Ironically, the higher the protein source that is extruded, the more toxic the result. Whole grain brown rice made into bags of snackie cakes falls into that category. Unfortunately, the fact that these foods only have a few ingredients listed on the label is very misleading. While it is great that there are only whole ingredients used, the factory processing is where the huge problem arises.
Why not ditch this popular processed food that so many erroneously believe to be healthy and make your own nutritious version instead?
Viva Frittelle di riso!
Rice Cakes (Frittelle di riso) Recipe
This healthy rice cakes recipe is simple and can be made with leftover rice from dinner the night before. Your family will never know!
Traditional Rice Cakes
Easy recipe for rice cakes using leftover rice from a previous meal. Makes 9-12 hockey puck size rice cakes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup white basmati rice or 3 cups cooked rice, preferably organic
- 1/2 cup sprouted gluten free flour
- 6 eggs separated, preferably pastured or free range
- 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- 1 Tbl lemon juice
- 1 Tbl butter preferably grassfed and organic
- 1 Tbl yacon syrup
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- expeller pressed coconut oil or ghee
Instructions
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Soak white, brown basmati, or wild rice in water plus lemon juice overnight. Or, use leftover rice from dinner the night before and skip the overnight soaking altogether and proceed to step #3.
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In the morning, add butter, salt. Cook the rice until tender, remove from heat and let partially cool down.
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Mix in egg yolks and flour with the cooked rice. When blended, mix in the vanilla and sweetener of choice. Mix well and refrigerate for 1 hour.
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Whip the eggs whites in a separate bowl until stiff with a pinch of sea salt and gently fold into the rice batter.
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Fry the rice cakes in ghee or expeller pressed coconut oil in a skillet until lightly browned on both sides.
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Serve with plenty of butter, Grade B maple syrup or coconut nectar if served for breakfast. These are also delicious as a side dish to the main meal with no sweetener at all.
Recipe Notes
Brown rice or the most nutritious wild rice may be substituted for the white rice either cooked or uncooked.
Date sugar, coconut sugar, or maple syrup may be substituted for the yacon syrup.
Do not use honey, as cooked honey is not healthy.
Sprouted einkorn flour may be substituted for the sprouted gluten free flour.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information and Recipes!
Why white rice is better than brown
Looks delicious, can’t wait to give it a try
I love this blog and I also follow and apply much of the research by the WAP Foundation; however, many of these foods/meals are so badly combined that they actually quite unhealthy and potentially dangerous. Foods need to combined properly to allow the body to digest and assimilate the nutrients necessary for health and maintenance. The only truly healthful way to eat is by creating meals that allow for optimal nutrient absorption. Proteins with starches or sugars is disasterous as is grains with sugar. This is a big no-no. I love you, Sarah, and I love this blog, but I feel it necessary to interject some imperative science that can mean the difference between true health and a pseudo health.
Those food combination rules are guaranteed to make you hungry! True, your body can digest certain combinations more easily, but then you just get hungry again. I’m all for eggs with toast and butter — keeps me full for a long time! Rice with eggs sounds good too, especially with a little syrup! 🙂
Perhaps the special food combinations would be ideal for someone with digestive problems, until full health is gained.
Just looked up”clobbered” milk. Never heard of it. Says need raw milk, not pasteurized. I’m in Virginia, can’t get raw milk, but organic. Will that work, or just use it plain?
Clabbered means to let the milk sour but it has to be raw because you can not drink soured pasteurized milk. Does this make more sense? Sarah never advocates drinking pasteurized milk but I think you could probably use buttermilk. Just my opinion!
Never mind Dr kim you are not the dr I’m talking about but you make sense too
Dr kim are you Dr Ben Kim who live in canada
I was wondering if you have to refrigerate for an hour if you cook it that morning or only if you are using leftover rice. Looks yummy. Thanks for the recipe!
Sarah,
A quick question. Do you think white rice should be soaked? I thought i read in your article about white rice that you didn’t soak it.
Those look delicious – going to have to try them. Actually just made something similar. Pancakes consisting of 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked (soaked prior to cooking) wild rice, 3 eggs, and a little Celtic sea salt. Blended the ingredients and cooked on a skillet.
Thanks for this great idea! I miss pancakes!!! Coconut flour absolutely shreds me apart. I don’t do well with a lot of nuts (like in almond flour pancakes) either. My TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) practitioner recommended that I eat a small amount of white rice (jasmine or basmati) daily. At that point, I had been on GAPS for over 2 years and still not healing my ulcerative colitis. I have been doing the white rice for months, typically made as congee where I make a batch overnight in the slow cooker, enough to last the week, and then reheat portions each day. I have cubes of bone broth that I make and freeze. So when I reheat the congee, I pop a cube of bone broth into the bowl, and then I also add a hard boiled egg (also made in a batch ahead of time). I add sea salt and pepper, sometimes paprika, green onion, and/or herbs if I have on hand. And also ghee (the only dairy I tolerate). After 2+ years on GAPS, this was wonderful! But I have to admit, I’m a bit tired of it now. Will try your pancake idea!!!
Can’t wait to try this!!! Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
I’d love to hear your opinion on commercially bought rice cakes. Ever since my son discovered that he’s sensitive to wheat, he’s stopped eating bread but often replaces eats rice cakes as a “healthy alternative”. I’m not so sure it is. Thoughts?
Hi Ruth. Sarah discusses the downside of commercial rice cakes — see the section above the recipe.
Yum… thanks, I’m going to make this one for sure.
One of the things that shocked me most during the excellent presentations Sally Fallon gave at the recent conference was when she cited the research where lab rats had live LONGER eating the cardboard box of the puffed wheat cereal than eating the PUFFED wheat itself!
I’m so confused! I thought we were supposed to avoid rice because of arsenic?