I recently received a few bags of sprouted GABA rice from Planet Rice (www.planetricefoods.com) – thank you Planet Rice! I used a modified recipe that I usually use for cooking brown rice and it was delicious!
The rice is sprouted or germinated, making it more digestible and nutrient-dense, resulting in a quicker cooking time and resulting in higher levels of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid). According to their website: “Germinated / sprouted brown rice has four times the GABA content of regular rice, and over ten times the GABA of white rice!” I’m very intrigued by this last fact because I’m a big fan of GABA, the major calming neurotransmitter and excellent for anxiety. I’ll be doing more research on this GABA connection and you’ll be hearing more from me on this very interesting topic! It’s not mentioned in my new book The Antianxiety Food Solution but I’m adding this to the list for the second edition.
I’m also a big fan of local and if you’re in Northern California, this is local! It’s grown just “up the road” from Sacramento. It’s also gluten-free of course. Planet Rice assured me that all California rice is free of GMOs (more on GMOS here). This particular brand is not organic (more on organic here) but rice typically uses less than other grains in the way of chemicals. But they do offer sprouted organic GABA rice in 25kg bags for commercial use and will hopefully make this available to us discerning and savvy consumers too!
My recipe for this sprouted GABA rice is so simple:
1 cup rice
2 cups boiling water
Add the above to a casserole dish with your choice of spices and optional chopped onion and garlic. Cover and cook for 40 minutes and enjoy with a curry dish, cold with veggies and salad dressing for a summer salad or however you like your rice!
(For regular brown rice, just cook for 60 minutes.)
