If you’re stirring in hearty vegetables like cauliflower or chicken to your refreshing rice salads, you just can’t cook the rice the same way as if you were serving it straight from the pot. With each stir, the soft, fluffy grains quickly begin to clump and fall apart. Now your rice salad is clumpy and mushy.
To prevent this, cook your rice like pasta. This helps prevent the grains from blowing out and fraying, so they hold their structure while maintaining a tender chew. Plus, if you toast your rice before cooking it, you can still do that with this method.