More than rice: things you didn’t know you could cook in your rice cooker

I get asked a lot what the best kitchen appliances are to stock in your kitchen. 

While there are a vast number of labor saving and fun gadgets I could list, my answer is usually pretty simple; it depends entirely on what you already have and if you know all the things it can do. 

One of my favourite examples is a simple rice cooker. There’s so much it can do apart from just cook perfectly fluffy rice. So before you invest in a slow cooker, a steamer or a crock pot, maybe get to know your rice cooker a little bit better first.

Rice cookers typically cook at 100C and once moisture is cooked off the thermostat switches to ‘keep warm’ to keep food at a safe and stable temperature (about 65C). 

But plenty of rice cookers today have extra or timed settings which give them more functions than you realise; from soup to slow cooking or cake baking.

Here are four of my favourite things to cook in a rice cooker — that aren’t rice — and believe me, they are delicious. 

Cake in the rice cooker

Any cake that can be steamed with its own moisture is a winner for the rice cooker and lots of models even have a cake function. Using steam rather than radiant heat makes for really lovely, fluffy cakes. I’ve done everything from citrus cakes to banana bread and golden syrup puddings. 

No cake function? No worries. 

Use the white rice function and if it needs a little longer after the timer goes off, set it to run another cycle, and check it every 15 minutes or so. 

Pro tip: for a basic model with no cake function, wrapping the lid in a tea towel will absorb moisture and stop condensation dripping onto the cake. 

Jane’s citrus rice cooker cake 

Ingredients: 

• 1 x orange or lemon, zest + sliced
• 100g salted butter, melted
• 1 cup of self-raising flour
• ¾ cups caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup buttermilk (or ⅓ cup milk, topped up with Greek yoghurt to make ½ cup in total)
• To serve; greek yoghurt and honey OR icing sugar and citrus juice

Method: 

1. Cut a circle of baking paper to fit the base of your rice cooker and place it into the pot. Brush the insides with a light coating of the melted butter. 
2. Sprinkle the base with 2 Tbsp of the sugar and then lay the sliced citrus into the base to create a pattern. 
3. In a bowl, combine the self-raising flour, remaining caster sugar and citrus zest. 
4. In a separate jug whisk together the egg, buttermilk and remaining melted butter and then mix it into the dry ingredients, being careful to just combine and not overmix. 
5. Pour the batter into the rice cooker pot, being careful not to disturb your citrus pattern and cook on the cake setting (usually 45 minutes). Once cooked, immediately loosen the edges of the cake with a spatula and invert the rice cooker bowl to release the cake onto a wire rack to cool and gently peel back the baking paper to reveal the citrus pattern. Cool, slice and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a drizzle of honey for extra tang, or mix 4 Tbsp icing sugar with a dash f cistus juice to make a citrus drizzle topping. 

Notes: Removing the cake from the cooker to cool will avoid soggy patches where steam gets trapped. 

Soups and noodle pots in the rice cooker

This is basically a great way to keep things simmering. Anything you’d simmer gently in a soup can be cooked in the rice cooker, and you can even brown things first before the stock goes in – just check all your settings and functions. 

A favourite of mine is hot pot, because the ‘keep warm’ setting will allow you to keep the broth warm without overheating it. 

Or make a simple soup of shredded BBQ chicken, chicken stock, corn and chives with noodles for a quick fix. 

Soup or hot pot in the rice cooker recipe

Ingredients: 

Stock base: 

• 1L chicken stock or dashi powder 
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce 
• ¼ cup mirin 

Fillings: 

• Finely sliced beef
• Mushrooms
• Bok choy
• Bamboo shoots
• Fried tofu puffs
• Chilli oil of choice + finely sliced garlic and spring onions and ginger
• Udon noodles, pre cooked

Method: 

1. Add the stock, soy and mirin to the rice cooker pot and set to soup or on the white rice setting until it boils. Set to keep warm and then add the soup fillings as needed for your hot pot. 

Eggs in the rice cooker

You can gently scramble them in a rice cooker, but steaming them is amazing. This is a great trick to avoid a bath of simmering water, but still get the same results for Korean style seamed eggs. 

Steamed eggs

Ingredients: 

• 3 eggs
• Pinch dashi powder / stock powder
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• White pepper

Sauce

• 2 Tbsp Sesame oil
• Spring onions, finely chopped
• Chilli oil, to taste
• ½ tbsp fresh ginger, minced
• Fresh coriander, to garnish
• Toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Method: 

1. Whisk together eggs, fish and soy sauce and pepper.
2. Pour through a strainer into the rice cooker pot. Close lid and cook for 10 minutes on the rice setting and then and then set to keep-warm for 5 minutes. 
3. Meanwhile mix together sesame oil, spring onions, chilli oil and ginger to create your sauce. 
4. Scoop spoonfuls into a bowl and top with the sauce and a scattering of coriander leaves and toasted sesame seeds

Slow cook/braise low and tender in the rice cooker

A lot of rice cookers have a slow cooker or braise setting.

But if yours dosen’t, a rice cycle cooks at 100C and is usually about 45 minutes, so you can set it by timer or just keep it cooking until you’re satisfied. Slow cooking is usually about hours hours and a braise can take about 45 minutes. 

Sticky pork belly

Ingredients: 

• 500g skin-on pork belly, cut into bite sized pieces 
• 2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tbsp fresh crushed ginger 
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tbsp keekap manis
• ¼ cup cup brown sugar 
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
• ½ tsp five-spice powder. 

To serve:

• 2 cups uncooked rice
• boiled eggs (1 per person, cooked and peeled)
• Greens of your choice (choy sum, bok choy etc)
• Sliced mushrooms

Method: 

1. In the rice cooker pot mix together garlic, ginger, soy, keep, sugar, shaoxing and five-spice. Add the cut up pork and toss to thoroughly coat and combine. 
2. Close the lid and set the cooker to white rice. Give it a stir every 15 minutes to evenly cook the pork. Once the cycle is finished check to make sure the pork is cooked and sticky. Remove it to a bowl and add the boiled eggs and turn them to coat in the sauce. 
3. Add 2 cups uncooked rice to the same rice pot, top with 3 cups water and a slice of fresh ginger and set to cook. In the last five minutes add the pork – with its sauce and eggs – back in on top of the rice. Add the sliced mushrooms and bok choy and steam for the final 5 minutes.
4. Serve in big spoonfuls with a little of everything.   

Slow cooked BBQ pulled pork 

Ingredients: 

• 1kg pork shoulder (rubbed with spices if you like) 
• 2 x onions, sliced into thick wedges
• 2 cups / 500ml beef stock or cider
• 2 Tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 cup BBQ sauce

To serve: 

• Coleslaw 
• Burger buns

Method: 

1. Rub your pork shoulder in any spice mix you like. Place it in the bowl of the rice cooker with the onion wedges, beef stock and soy sauce. Cover with the lid and set to slow cook or run on the rice cycle for 4 hours, until the pork is fall-apart tender. 
2. Use two forks to pull the pork apart and mix the jus through. Add one cup of the BBQ sauce and toss through. 
3. Serve into burger buns with coleslaw. 

Jane de Graaff is Today’s kitchen expert, food writer and recipe developer and content creator for fun family recipes of all kinds.

Find all Jane’s food adventures, tricks and tips on Instagramand TikTok.