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“Can We Have the Yellow Rice?”
There are recipes you develop because you want to make something impressive.
And then there are recipes that become recipes because your children name them.
This is one of those.
When my oldest son was little, I would stir a spoonful of my homemade Bouillon Mix into the cooking water whenever I made rice.
The turmeric in the mix turned the rice a beautiful golden yellow, while the herbs gave an ordinary pot of rice enough flavor to make it feel like something all its own.
He didn’t call it seasoned rice.
He called it “the yellow rice.”
Whenever I asked what kind of rice he wanted with dinner, his answer was almost always the same:
“Can we have the yellow rice?”
And just like that, it had a name.
Years later, I still think of him every time I make it. Now, our son can make it himself too.
Because some of the foods that become part of a family’s story aren’t elaborate. They’re the dependable foods we make again and again.
The ones our children recognize.
The ones they request.
The ones that quietly become part of the language a family speaks together.
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Yellow Rice
Serves: Multiple
Fuel Flow Role: Flavor Foundation
This isn’t a complicated recipe—and that’s exactly why it has stayed in our kitchen.
It’s simply rice cooked with my homemade Bouillon Mix. The turmeric gives it its signature golden color while the herbs and seasonings flavor the rice as it cooks.
Ingredients:
Rice
Water, according to the cooking directions for your rice
Homemade Bouillon Mix, to taste
Directions:
1. Measure the rice and water according to the cooking method and type of rice you’re using.
2. Stir the Bouillon Mix into the cooking water.
3. Add the rice and cook according to the package directions or your preferred rice-cooking method.
4. Fluff with a fork and serve warm.
Nicole Notes:
Season it to your liking. The amount of Bouillon Mix you need will depend on how much rice you’re making and how strongly seasoned you prefer it. Start conservatively and adjust from there. Find your sweet spot.
Make extra. Leftover Yellow Rice can become tomorrow’s side dish, the base of a bowl, or part of another meal. Cool and refrigerate cooked rice promptly and reheat it thoroughly when serving again.
It doesn’t actually have to be yellow. “Yellow Rice” is what my son called it because the turmeric in my Bouillon Mix turned the rice we usually ate a beautiful golden color. But the name belongs to our family story—not to a requirement for the recipe.
Use the rice you enjoy and have available. White rice may turn golden, White rice, jasmine, basmati, black rice, red rice, purple rice, wild rice, brown rice, or a blend can all work here. Some will show the turmeric. Some won’t.
The flavor is the important part. Choose your rice, use the amount of liquid and cooking time appropriate for that variety, and season the cooking liquid with Bouillon Mix to taste.
Find It in Not By Bread Alone: Yellow Rice—and the homemade Bouillon Mix that gives it its familiar flavor—is included in my Not By Bread Alone cookbook, alongside more of the dependable, gluten-free recipes that have earned a place at our family table.
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From the Kitchen Apothecary
This little recipe is also a good example of what I mean when I talk about my Kitchen Apothecary.
My apothecary isn’t a separate cabinet filled only with things I pull out when someone needs a remedy.
It’s part of my kitchen.
It includes herbs and spices, certainly, but also foundational pantry ingredients and the foods I use to make our gluten-free way of eating more flavorful, functional, and sustainable.
Yellow Rice brings several of those ordinary ingredients together. Turmeric provides the color. Herbs and spices provide the flavor. My homemade Bouillon Mix keeps those ingredients combined and ready to use.
BRABO brings gentleness and simplicity to gluten-free food for times when you need to treat your body gently, and this rice can combine two of those familiar elements.
Nothing complicated—just a new spin on something I already do, bringing nourishment to The Hearth of my home.
That’s part of my philosophy around a Kitchen Apothecary: one herb you actually use is an apothecary.
You don’t need an enormous collection to begin. You need ingredients that earn their place in your kitchen by helping you feed your actual people.
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Rice Isn’t the Only Option
The method matters more to me than insisting that everyone use the same ingredient.
That’s why you’ll also find my Cabbage Rice Method here in the Treehouse.
Finely chopped cabbage can become a completely different kind of base for a meal, and once you understand the method, you can take it in all kinds of directions.
My Spanish-Inspired Cabbage Rice and Coconut Curry Cabbage Rice both start with that same idea and then build very different flavors around it.
And sometimes I use both.
Yellow Rice and finely chopped cabbage can meet in the same pot or on the same plate.
That’s the kind of flexibility I want recipes to give you: another possibility, not another rule.
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Put It Next to Dinner
Yellow Rice doesn’t need to be the star of the meal.
It’s very good at being the thing beside the star.
Serve it with Green Bean Goulash when you want something simple to round out the plate. Use it alongside a protein and vegetables. Turn leftovers into a bowl. Or use the same Bouillon Mix that seasons this rice in recipes where you want that familiar savory foundation.
That same pantry staple also finds its way into recipes like Just Like Grandma’s Stuffing.
That’s one of my favorite things about making my own foundational mixes.
I’m not stocking an ingredient for one recipe.
I’m building a pantry that helps me make dinner.
Make the Foods Your Family Names
I think we sometimes underestimate these recipes because they’re so simple.
But simple doesn’t mean insignificant.
If there is a pancake, soup, rice, casserole, seasoning, or slightly strange combination that your people have given their own name, write it down.
Make it again.
Let it count as a recipe.
Because those ordinary foods are often the ones woven most tightly into family life.
Nobody in my house needed a culinary name for rice seasoned with homemade bouillon.
We already had one.
The Yellow Rice.
The Treehouse Standard
Safe, not sorry. Always.
I don’t ask you to trust my ingredient interpretation—not even my own family does.
Read the label. Verify the source. Make the decision that best supports your home.
My household is gluten-free, so the ingredients and products I choose are selected with our family’s boundaries in mind. Brands, formulations, manufacturing practices, and labels can change. Always verify the specific products you purchase against the food boundaries that matter in your own household.
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Nicole Burch is a Trim Healthy Lifestyle Coach, author, and holistic family life mentor helping women and families rebuild through rooted rhythms, personal governance, and sustainable living. Blending nourishment, discernment, and restoration, she guides others toward resilience, peace, and healing—creating lives that are grounded, aligned, and nurtured at home.
Wellness That Withstands.
Rooted. Resilient. Restored.
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Trim Healthy Coach Disclaimer
Nicole Burch is a Certified Trim Healthy Mama Lifestyle Coach, independently offering services based on the THM plan. This coach is not an employee or agent of Trim Healthy Mama, LLC. Coaching services are independently managed, and THM is not responsible for results, business practices, or claims made by this coach.
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