Should I wash the rice for my paella?

Preparation is essential to make a paella if we want our paella to turn out as best as possible: we need our tomatoes for the stir-fry to be of the best quality, to have correctly calculated the amount of rice and water, to cut the pieces of meat or fish …and wash the rice?

The latter is a question that we have been able to observe that some people are asking themselves lately on social networks. As master rice cooks, we believe it is convenient to resolve this question in this blog post, so that there are no questions about whether the rice for paella should be washed.

To wash or not to wash rice for paella?

Valencian tradition says that rice should not be washed, to be more precise, it should not be washed to make paellas or risottos.

This does not mean that it cannot be washed, although it is not recommended or traditionally done, since it is not usually washed in Valencian rice dishes.

Some cooks recommend doing this to eliminate possible impurities or excess starch. Even so, it should be taken into account that the latter is more the exception than the rule, most cooks prefer not to wash the rice to make a paella.

Why not wash the rice for a paella?

The reason why not wash the rice grains to make a paella is based on 2 main reasons: the first of them is that we eliminate the superficial starch of the rice, which helps to make the appreciated socarrat.

The second reason is that, to clean it, the rice is usually soaked, which means that we are already hydrating the rice. Because of this, we will have to change our proportion of water for the paella or there is a possibility that we could miss the grain.

Another reason that we can find would be due to the type of grain, the preferred rice for paella is the round grain, which has a high starch content, which is responsible for making the grain gelatinous. When washed, this grain may be drier and looser, but less moisturized, which means that this grain of rice loses its characteristic stickiness.

Should I wash the rice for my paella or not?

Our answer to this question would be that it is not necessary that you wash the rice that you are going to use to make a paella, although you can wash it for other recipes. It is recommended to wash the rice for making sushi, fried rice, white rice or for salads.

If you wash the rice, it is advisable not to let it soak to do so, preferably we want to wash it with cold tap water and a strainer.

We should also keep in mind that the most common reason for washing rice is due to possible pesticide contamination or to remove arsenic. Rice of Spanish origin is grown in exclusive and natural hectares, therefore, its level of arsenic is minimal and it usually lacks impurities and contamination. In the same way, it must be taken into account that cleaning the rice, although it can eliminate arsenic, also eliminates part of the nutrients from the rice grain.

It is therefore that, if we talk about washing rice, the decision is more a matter of personal preference.

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