One great advantage of buying in bulk is especially true when trying a new item for the first time–you only buy just what you need, rather than an entire package!

According to Alter Eco Americas’ website, “Purple Jasmine Rice (Khao Gram variety) is a unique purple grain that is glutinous when cooked and has a delicate, sweet palate. Due to its rich taste and aesthetic appeal, this traditional rice is used by local communities for feasts and celebrations. It is grown exclusively in the fertile soil of the Esan Plateau, in the East of Thailand, situated close to the Cambodian border. This particular region has the ideal combination of soil and climatic conditions to produce nutritious and flavorful rice. Purple rice is mixed with naturally perfumed White Jasmine rice to give it an ideal texture while retaining its vibrant purple color and sweet flavor.”

Cooking instructions from Alter Eco Americas: Rinse the rice thoroughly and drain. Add one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer until all the water has evaporated (approximately 15 minutes). You can also fry the rice in a small amount of olive oil for five minutes before cooking to give it a deliciously more elaborate taste.

Serving Tip From Valley Natural Foods: When cooked, the entire batch of rice becomes uniform in color–purple! The texture and taste is similar to Thai sticky rice. Serve as a side (as you would regular rice) to any meat or veggie dish. Sprinkle the rice with a bit of soy sauce to season, and top with chopped fresh cilantro and perhaps a sliver or two of fresh hot chili pepper for visual (and tasty!) contrast.

If you’re someone who shops our bulk foods area, you may have noticed a big change! The bulk foods department at Valley Natural Foods is in the final stage of a reset. We upgraded the bulk cooler to a more efficient one, added additional bins to accomodate at least 30 new bulk products and expanded our shelf space to hold containers and liquid bulk dispensers. The whole area feels roomier too!

You can look forward to seeing new products filling those additional bins such as Organic Tri-Colored Quinoa, Sprouted Quinoa, Quinoa Flakes, Purple Jasmine Rice, Pearled Farro, Whole Wheat French Couscous and Sprouted Green Lentils, just to name a few. Some of these new items are a result of customer requests!

Stay tuned – we will be blogging about what you can do with some of these new bulk products in future posts.