This rice cooker for brown rice ensures you get perfectly fluffy rice every time. Who doesn’t want soft, fluffy rice at the dinner table?
But with the busy lifestyles we lead, there is less and less time to prepare the foods we need in a way that we want. Not to mention at times we forget what we should eat and what we shouldn’t because we simply don’t have enough time or energy at our disposal.
But various products on the market now promise to change our cooking lives for the better. In this review about the best rice cooker for brown rice you will see how much difference a quality product can make.
Why brown rice you may ask?
The difference between brown and white rice is that brown rice is all parts of the grain. For example, the bran, germ and the endosperm. This means you gain extra benefit from each grain which will ultimately lead to reductions in the amount of cholesterol in the body. It will also play a pivotal role in lowering the risk of stroke or diabetes and other ailments.
But why use a brown rice cooker instead of cooking in a pressure cooker or a pot? If you have used a rice cooker in past, you will know that it offers convenience in many different ways. For instance, it never burns the rice. Or you can put it on a cooking schedule so that you won’t need to attend to it all the time.
But the most important feature would be uniform cooking, meaning it extracts every nutrient from the rice grain. Brown rice may take longer to cook but it is more than worth it due to the tremendous extra nutrients that it holds.
There are many healthy brown rice cookers which are specialized to cook brown rice. In this review we will go through some of the most popular ones and let you decide which ones fit your kitchen the best.
List of the Best Brown Rice Cookers
After exploring the market, we have found four cookers which are the most accurate appliances as advertised. They cook brown rice without compromising on the taste or quality. These are as follows:
* Zojirushi NS-YAC18 Umami Micom Rice Cooker
Simple cooking without any passion and cooking that retains true flavor are very different worlds, and this is where Zojirushi Umami Rice Cooker comes in. This programmable brown rice cooker takes a big leap forward with a microchip that maintains all cooking aspects inside the cooker thus freeing you from having to constantly monitor.
But when it comes to taste, this rice cooker stands out even more. “Umami”, which is also often known as the fifth taste, results from the basic method these cookers use to cook rice. Pre-heating and soaking the rice for an extended period of time is essential to bring out a taste in rice that you probably have rarely experienced.
The steaming enables the sugar released into the water to reattach into the rice grains. Thus, the rice is made a bit sweeter. The process is completed with the conversion of beta starch to alpha starch which makes the rice soft and fluffy.
It’s about time you had the opportunity to taste the sweet rice that your stomach deserves. Not to mention, the kids will fall in love with the taste. If you are having guests, then rice with alpha starch will make their eating experience pleasant enough to tell all their friends about the food you have cooked for them. As a host, that would be as good a compliment as you could imagine.
From the spacing side, this small brown rice cooker will fit into any kitchen. The design is such that no matter if you have a traditional or more modern kitchen, it will fit right in.
The LCD control panel makes it even easier for you to operate this programmable brown rice cooker. Whether you want to cook brown rice or some veggies, you won’t find any difficulty in cooking as the LCD panel does a perfect job guiding you through the process.
The manual provided with this rice cooker will also contain any type of guide you may seek regarding cooking various dishes.
The Zojirushi rice cooker comes in different variants so you can choose the appropriate one for you. If you have a small family, then the smaller 5.5 cup variant is enough to cook for all members.
The smaller version will also be a bit cheaper compared to the 10-cup version which is comparatively more expensive. But with the bigger version, you can cook a larger amount which is convenient for bigger families.
This versatile bpa free brown rice cooker is able to cook soup, rice, sushi and more. This multi-purpose functionality will always come in handy.
When your kids want sushi and some other member of your group wants soup, this rice cooker will be able to provide the perfect cooking platform to cook all these dishes and make everyone happy. Not to mention, the automatic warming technology will keep your foods warm.
Another special aspect of this cooker is the inner spherical pan. The inner cooking pan has been made in such a way that heating is uniform throughout all the portions of the pan. This uniform heating will prevent food from getting burnt in one place while, in other parts, the food may not even get properly cooked at all.
While buying a rice cooker, this is one aspect which you, as a consumer have to look out for. There are many rice cookers on the market which don’t have the proper technology for uniform cooking. As a result, it’s a pain to cook in them as food tends to get burnt at a certain place in the pan.
But Zojirushi, with its smart technology, is able to provide unfirm heating so that foods are cooked evenly and you aren’t left with a dish with a cooked portion alongside burnt ones.
In terms of cooking brown rice, most rice cookers do not adapt well to cook it in perfect proportions. But Zojirushi, with its perfect settings for healthy brown rice cooking, will give you the result anyone will love.
Let’s face it, though we all know that brown rice is better for your health, you may tend to avoid cooking it as it may take a longer time to cook and end up with a taste that is unpleasant.
But with Zojirushi rice cooker, the conversion of beta starch into alpha starch along with the sugar being absorbed back into the rice will give you a pleasant taste that makes your time well worth it. And in the case of brown rice, something you may not even have tasted before.
If you have a busy lifestyle and want to have a quick breakfast, you can just add oats, coconut milk along with some water and have a super delicious creamy porridge in no time.
With the programmable interface, you won’t even need to start the process. Before sleeping, you can put all the ingredients into the cooker and schedule the appropriate time for when you wake up. The cooker will start to cook the ingredients as instructed all by itself!.
* Aroma Housewares ARC-6106 Rice Cooker
The Aroma Housewares ARC – 6106 brings cool touch technology while performing different roles, such as both cooking rice and steaming. This multi-cooker and food steamer will give you the moistness that have always demanded of your food. This all comes with minimal effort with the help of Aroma Housewares rice cooker.
With 12 different functions available, you now have the opportunity to cook cakes, tarts and more. If you have a special occasion at your house and need to make a sweet treat, then you can bake a cake without much effort. Not to mention, making yogurt is also possible in this cooker.
The cool touch technology is a feature that will come in very handy, especially if you have children at home. As a parent, you may worry your kids may go to the kitchen and touch hot cookers etc. At times you may even forget a certain cooker was hot yourself, and end up with a burn.
But with cool touch technology, you can touch the cooker surface at any point in time. You won’t need to worry about whether you have cooked just now or hours ago. Even if it is very hot inside, it will prevent any heat out on the surface.
Having mentioned all these features, you probably have realized by now that, with this cooker, you have ample opportunity to make a variety of dishes. Whether you are cooking soup, steaming veggies or preparing rice, this cooker can make all these dishes very quickly without compromising on quality.
After a day’s hard work, you won’t need to spend the least bit of energy handling all these dishes. Now you can spend some extra time with your kids as scheduled cooking will handle a bulk of the workload.
One benefit of these cookers is that these rice cookers with brown rice settings enable you to cook brown rice even more perfectly. As you are already aware, brown rice is the one that extracts all nutrients from each rice grain. You probably have found it a bit troublesome to cook brown rice. But this shouldn’t stop you from taking a healthy course in life.
These rice cookers are your savior. These bpa free brown rice cooker with optimal settings will cook perfectly every time. With minimal to no effort, you will have the soft and fluffy rice which even your kids will love. The dinner table will no longer be a place where the kids complain about the rice. The fluffiness may attract people even when they aren’t hungry!
This programmable brown rice cooker comes with two different variants. If you want a smaller brown rice cooker, then you can opt for the 12-cup variant. But if you have more people to attend to, then you also have the 16-cup variant at your disposal.
With the Aroma rice cooker, you will receive the following components:
- A non-stick inner pot which will ease cleaning. There won’t be any food getting stuck to the inner surface and hence you can clean it very easily without much effort.
The beauty of a rice cooker is that you won’t need to attend to it, unlike cooking in a pot. The rice won’t be burnt and even if there is a layer at the bottom, due to the non-stick surface, you can remove it easily. - A steaming tray which is perfect for anything that you want to steam. With the help of this tray, while cooking the rice below, you can steam various foods above at the same time.
- Rice measuring cup.
- Soup ladle to prepare all the tasty delicious soups that you will no doubt make in this rice cooker.
- Rice paddle.
Cooking should be something fun and enjoyable while being healthy at the same time. With a hectic day to day life from morning until evening, it is understandable to eat some courses that are not healthy. But what if there was a way to at least lower the intake of unhealthy foods?
The healthy brown rice cookers we’ve spoken about so far give you this exact opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle. And all without making it a complicated task.
* Panasonic SR-DF101 One Touch Rice Cooker
Among the modern rice cookers which automatically control the various aspects of cooking, the Panasonic one touch rice cooker is perhaps one which deserves a special mention due to the advanced microchip it brings to the table.
This one-touch rice cooker adjusts the power according to how much rice is being cooked and hence, can save you from needlessly high electric bills. The fuzzy logic embedded in the technology enables this feature.
When you are cooking, the microchip will check how much rice you are cooking so that optimal settings can be made which will enable the rice to cook evenly while at the same time balancing out the power. Thus, this rice cooker for brown rice not only gives you the perfect cooker for cooking brown rice but will also save you from burning a hole in your pocket.
In terms of cooking, this cooker usually cooks white rice in less than half an hour. For brown rice, which does take a bit longer to cook, it may take 1 to 1.5 hours depending upon the settings you provide. There are lots of steps while cooking brown rice and though it may take a bit longer, brown rice is something that is beneficial for your health.
There will be a time period for the pre-cook soak and then, with the brown rice cooking settings, it may take an hour to cook the rice. When you are cooking brown rice, the most troublesome aspect is that it takes longer to cook and hence if you don’t have even heating, then there is a chance some portion of rice may get burnt.
But with the Panasonic one touch rice cooker, you won’t need to worry about it as the rice cooker itself provides uniform heating so that every bit of rice cooks evenly. Not to mention an automatic procedure will check the amount of rice and balance the power.
The Panasonic healthy brown rice cooker also comes with two variants of different sizes. There’s a 5 cup version which is a perfect fit for a small family and a 10 cup version which is enough to accommodate more people.
From a pricing point of view, there’s not much of a difference between the 5 cup version and the 10 cup version. You have to make a judgment call on which one you should buy.
This cooker has 4 settings.
- Quick cook/steam
- White rice
- Brown rice
- Porridge/Soup
As you may have already guessed, the settings are self-explanatory and hence, you won’t need to spend time getting familiar with the cooking procedure. You just need to put the ingredients or rice into the inner pot and select the appropriate settings. The rice cooker will do the rest for you. Simple as that!
* Oster Digital Rice Cooker
This programmable brown rice cooker is the perfect companion in your kitchen to make your cooking life easier.
Going by looks, the premium finish that this rice cooker provides is enough to appeal to customers at first glance. But even if we exclude the premium look of this rice cooker, the functionality it provides is even more appealing as it has a versatility that isn’t limited to only cooking rice.
There are 5 functions in this rice cooker which provide the optimal cooking experience for different types of dishes.
- White rice
- Brown rice
- Steam
- Breakfast
- Soup
These 5 functions will enable you to cook different dishes at their optimal settings so that you can have the tasty dishes without putting much effort. The delay timer that is included in the cooker also comes in handy. It works great when using it for delayed cooking or even delayed warming.
There are different versions of this rice cooker available ranging from 6 cups to 20 cups. If you have a smaller family, then you can go for the smaller ones as they will be much cheaper. The 20 cups version is perfect to accommodate a big group of people as it can cook a large amount at once.
The locking lid that is provided with this rice cooker makes an airtight seal which enables you to touch the rice cooker even when it is heated inside. You won’t have to worry about accidentally getting your hand burnt by the rice cooker even when it is in the middle of cooking.
If there are any kids running around who may accidentally touch the rice cooker, it is still safe. The heat is maintained only inside and the outside is cool enough to touch as the airtight seal isolates the inner and outer portion of the rice cooker.
Pros And Cons of Using A Brown Rice Cooker
While using a rice cooker for brown rice, you will experience many advantages and disadvantages to it.
Pros:
- Make breakfast in the most convenient way: Most modern rice cookers come with the schedule cooking feature. Which means you can set the clock to set the time when the cooking process should start. It gives you the convenience to make a perfect breakfast for yourself without hassle.
All you need to do is, before you sleep, add everything in the rice cooker and set the needed time at which the cooking should be started in the morning. The rice cooker will automatically start cooking as it was scheduled and you waste any time. And you won’t sacrifice the breakfast you love even when you have a very busy schedule. - Power saving: With advanced microchips technology, most rice cookers also have power saving mode that regulates the power in accordance with the amount of rice about to be cooked. If the amount is small, then it will use less power. As a result, you will be saving big on electricity bills.
- Steaming vegetables: Rice cookers also provide you with the option to steam vegetables. Some cookers will even provide you with the option to cook rice and steam at the same time. Thus, you can cook two dishes at once which saves time and power.
- Warm foods: The cooker has the ability to warm food according to the settings you determine.
Cons:
Along with all the advantages that a rice cooker brings, there are some disadvantages also. You need to consider the pros and cons in order to decide whether a rice cooker fits your kitchen or not. The following are a few disadvantages of using a rice cooker:
If you cook only rice in the rice cooker, it will seem like a waste of space in your kitchen to have a cooker for just one purpose. The advantage of the rice cooker comes only when you are cooking versatile foods such as porridge, soups, steamed veggies etc.
In this versatile approach to cooking, the rice cooker will justify the space that it takes up in the kitchen. But if you will use it for just the purpose of cooking rice, then it may indeed be a waste of space.- In a pressure cooker, the rice generally gets cooked way quicker than a rice cooker. Though while cooking brown rice, the rice cooker with brown rice settings will be the perfect cooker for you.
As brown rice takes a bit of time to get cooked which involves various cooking processes, the brown rice cooker is the perfect platform to cook it with. But if you are cooking only white rice, then a pressure cooker may sound more convenient to you. - Many rice cookers don’t have uniform heating. As a result, especially in cases of slow heating, some amount of rice may get burnt in multiple places. Though modern rice cookers do provide uniform heating, many other models suffer from lack of it.
Conclusion
Brown rice has been proven to be more beneficial than white rice. After considering the multiple nutrients that it brings compared to white rice, the time has come for you to incorporate it into your diet. It may be a bit more tedious to cook brown rice, but if you own the best rice cooker for brown rice you can cook it easily.
You will have to take the aspects of price, features, and aesthetics into account to determine which one appeals to you most. But if we take all things into consideration, then the Aroma housewares rice cooker comes out on top with all the important features along with a premiere look.
The price point also doesn’t vary from model to model. With cool touch technology, even heating, and the production of fluffy rice, this rice cooker makes for a strong contender along with Zojirushi Umami rice cooker.
We hope this article has shed light on various details regarding the best rice cooker for cooking brown rice and has given you enough insight to help you to choose one that is best for you and your family.
