Rice Is Life: Recipes and Stories Celebrating the World's Most Essential Grain

A love letter to the humble grain featuring 65 recipes for rice and all its glorious possibilities.

Rice is so much more than just a pantry staple. It's the foundation of cuisines across the world, a grain that sustains half the world's people, and the start of a delicious meal at home.

In RICE IS LIFE, rice visionaries and founders of Lotus Foods, Caryl Levine and Ken Lee, share 65 recipes that showcase the grain in easy-to-cook meals from around the world. From Arroz Con Pollo to Hainanese-Inspired Chicken and Rice, to Ramen "Carbonara" and Soba Noodles with Green Tea Broth and Smoked Salmon, this cookbook captures the diversity of flavors and helps transform simple, gluten-free pantry staples into flavorful and nourishing dishes.

Along the way, it offers essays on rice culture and sustainable rice agriculture, showing how rice plays a part in uplifting people across the globe. With its bright and colorful interior, RICE IS LIFE finds the joy and freshness in the everyday beauty of rice not just as a pantry staple, but a staple of life.

Rice is central to global cooking: As the staple food for more than half the world's population, rice is ubiquitous and is the foundation of so many cultures, including Japan, Korea, China, India, the Persian Empire, Italy, Finland, West Africa, the Caribbean, Thailand, Vietnam, the American South, and many more.

Naturally gluten-free: Rice and rice noodle–based recipes are naturally gluten free. This makes this pantry staple a core component in the diet of people with celiac disease, are sensitive to gluten, or are trying to incorporate less gluten into their diet for other reasons. This cookbook helps home cooks prepare rice with confidence and explore all its glorious possibilities.
 
Perfect for:

• Home cooks who are looking to expand their repertoire
• Fans of cuisines that rely on rice (Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Filipino, Italian, Persian, and more)
• People looking for gluten-free meal ideas  
• fans of Lotus Foods and their products
• Readers curious about the history, cultural significance, and environmental impact of rice

Caryl Levine and Ken Lee are rice visionaries. Their pioneering introduction of Forbidden Rice®, Bhutanese Red Rice, and other specialty rices has fundamentally changed how Americans think about, cook, and eat rice, transforming it from a starchy white side dish to a center-of-the-plate ingredient. They also introduced a new paradigm, using market incentives for social change. By paying farmers premium prices to conserve rice biodiversity, they help improve incomes, protect the environment, and provide consumers with healthier rice.

Kristin Donnelly is the author of MODERN POTLUCK (Clarkson Potter, 2016) and CAULIFLOWER (Short Stack Editions, 2018). MODERN POTLUCK was lauded in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Food & Wine, Epicurious, and Design*Sponge.