Name: Peanut Butter Rice
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 3
Cuisine: World
Ingredients: 3 cups Brown Rice, cooked; 1/3 cup Peanut Butter; 3/4 cup Coconut Milk (water, whole milk, or milk alternative can be substituted); 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce; 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger; 1/2 teaspoon Granulated Garlic; 3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar; Pinch of Cayenne pepper(I usually put 2-3 dashes)

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I know what you’re thinking…

Peanut Butter in Rice?

Peanut butter isn’t just for a PB&J sandwich. You can use it in delicious savory dishes too! You can find savory dishes containing nut butter in cuisines ranging from African to Thai. Two of my favorite savory dishes include Thai Inspired Green Salad with Chicken and Vietnamese Spring Rolls with peanut sauce.

African Peanut Butter Rice

If you are looking for an easy side dish or way to use leftover rice, this recipe for Peanut Butter Rice is perfect. Adding a bit of peanut sauce adds a mild peanut taste, a touch of spice from the cayenne, and sweetness from the brown sugar. My children devour it!

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The peanut sauce recipe I have here has a flavor similar to a Thai Peanut Sauce with full fat coconut milk. If you don’t have that on hand, you can use water, whole milk, or a nut milk alternative. I hope you’ll love it as much as we do.

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Ingredients for Peanut Butter Rice Recipe

You probably already have most of the ingredients for peanut sauce. Here’s what you’ll need:

peanut butter
coconut milk
soy sauce
ground ginger
granulated garlic
brown sugar
dash of cayenne

How to Make Peanut Sauce for Rice

Mix all of the above ingredients together. In a medium-sized pot, bring to a simmer over medium low heat and cook for 4-5 minutes. Sauce will thicken as it cooks. Once it’s at the desired consistency, remove from heat and serve.

What to Serve With African Peanut Rice

I think this peanut butter rice is best with grilled or baked chicken seasoned with a little salt, pepper, and Chinese Five Spice. Nothing fancy, but still delicious. I will often make extra peanut sauce to dip the chicken in. You can add the peanut sauce to fried rice, roasted pork, spring rolls, as a dipping sauce for fresh vegetables, and with shrimp.

Disney Inspired Recipe

This rice recipe using peanut butter is inspired by Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Boma restaurant in Florida. Boma is an African restaurant serving classic African dishes like Bobotie, Duran Chicken, Pap (cornmeal mash), Chicken Sadza, and their famous Zebra Domes. The African Peanut Butter Rice they serve is a basmati rice with peanut sauce. Whenever my family and I visit Disney World, we try to eat at this restaurant at least once very trip. When we are home we can create this recipe and reminisce about past trips.

Cooking with Brown Rice

Brown rice is a pantry staple I cook a lot with. I prefer brown rice over white rice for its nutty flavor, firmer texture, and added fiber. It is considered healthier than plain white rice. The only down side is brown rice takes a longer time to cook.

My rice cooker is a life saver, though, and helps me get the rice perfectly cooked every time.

For more than 10 years, I have been cooking every type of rice in a rice cooker. It takes the guesswork out of getting perfect rice every time. So the instructions below will call for cooked rice, as your cook time will depend on how you choose to make your rice or if you are using leftover rice.

More Ethnic Recipes to Try

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3 cups