Home Made Brown Rice Noodles

Note: This post is a recipe for Asian style steamed brown rice noodles. For a version that uses a pasta machine, please see here.

Introduction

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making home made whole grain brown rice Asian style noodles for a long time.

It is pretty easy to find in stores white rice noodles but brown rice noodles are not as wide spread and they can get pretty pricey.   

It sure would be nice to whip up some brown rice noodles on demand from brown rice in my pantry without having to go to the grocery store.

Well now I can and so can you!

Ingredients

Brown Rice Flour

Any variety of brown rice flour can be used for this recipe except for glutinous rice, also known as sticky rice.

If you have a high speed blender or a grain mill, it is fairly quick and easy to make your own brown rice flour on demand.

Brown rice flour, like all whole grain flours, contains nutritious but volatile oils such as vitamin E which can cause the flour to get rancid faster than refined flours.

Consequently, you will have a much fresher product if you mill your own brown rice flour at home as  needed.

If your brown rice is clean, as detailed in recipe, then blending it for three minutes in a high speed blender will transform it into a fine flour.

If your brown rice needs cleaning, it can be rinsed first to your satisfaction, patted dry with a cotton or paper towel and spread out to air dry for at least 10 minutes until fully dry to the touch.

(For more details about milling brown rice, please see this post.)

(For tips on choosing a grain mill, please see this post.)

Tapioca Flour

Tapioca flour is a shelf stable starch product of the cassava plant.

When heated, tapioca lends elasticity to any dough.

Arrowroot flour

Arrowroot flour has similar properties to tapioca flour although it is does not have as much chewiness.

Arrowroot is considered more nutritious than tapioca flour and also has medicinal properties.

If you don’t have arrowroot flour, doubling the amount of tapioca flour will lead to equivalent results.

Salt

Salt is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts humidity from surrounding air.

Adding salt to the dough will help keep it moist and elastic longer.

Non iodized salt is preferred for this recipe as iodized salt can lead to off flavors.

I used Himalayan sea salt in this recipe but feel free to use any type of sea salt or kosher salt.

Steaming Method

In figuring out how to make brown rice noodles, I researched quite a few videos and websites which showed how to steam Asian noodles over a steamer.

While that is certainly the traditional way, I also found an easier option – using two dinner plates in the microwave as inspired by this video as well as this one.

Once I tweaked it for brown rice flour, the microwave method gave me consistent results, was faster and not nearly as messy as using a steamer.

By aiming for a slightly thicker noodle, I also was able to make this recipe oil free.

Cutting the Brown Rice Noodles

The easiest way to cut the oil free crepes into noodles was using a large chef’s knife on a cutting board.

Cutting two crepes at a time worked well.

Care must be taken to have the drier side of each crepe face each other so that they do not stick.

Also, once cut, the noodles should be separated as soon as possible and covered to retain their moisture and elasticity.

Storing the Brown Rice Noodles

The noodles can be stored a couple of days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

To keep the noodles from sticking, it is best to separate them out in smaller quantities either with parchment paper or plastic place mats.

Adding Brown Rice Noodles to Your Recipe

These noodles will work in stir fry recipes or soups. 

Since they are already cooked, they only need to be warmed up a few minutes prior to serving with the warm sauce of your choice.

Conclusion

This recipe was a lot of fun to work on and would be a great project to do with children, under proper supervision of course.

If you enjoyed this noodle recipe, you may also be interested in my post on making gluten free brown rice noodles using a pasta machine.

To learn more about whole grain rice, be sure to check out Cooking with Brown, Red or Black Rice 101.

Wishing you a flavorful experience!

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