What 'dry' weight per portion for rice and pasta?

[melt71]

I'm intending to do quite a bit of batch cooking tonight involving pasta and rice dishes. Usually I guess the amounts and put the remainder in the fridge for lunch the next day

However, I want to make 6 portions of pasta and 4 portions of rice - how can I measure it to make sure I get the correct portion sizes? I've no idea what the weight pre-cooked should be!

Thanks in advance!

[Heth]

Portion of pasta for one would usually be about 75g. I usually use 125g for two of us, and use more veg in the sauce. If we are very hungry cos we've been out for a walk then we'll have 100g each.

[melt71]

Thanks very much.

If anybody can tell me what the rice weight should be I would be very grateful. I'm off in 10 minutes so don't worry if it's after 3pm I'll have to guess again!

[lipidicman]

For rice I use 1/3 of a mugful. This for me is a medium portion and would need a naan bread to go with it

For pasta I use roughly 1/3 of a bag (about 170g! Clearly I'm a big eater even though I cant hit 10st!)

[krishna]

I've always worked on the basis of half a cup of raw rice per person and cooked it in twice as much water (or a bit more if brown or basmati).

[Curry Queen]

I use my BM cup for measuring rice, which is roughly 250ml (around the same size as an American measuring cup) and use a full cupful for two people, which gives quite generous portions. I'm crap at guestimating pasta though and always cook f-a-r too much as it never seems to look enough when you put it in the pan

[lipidicman]

CQ, I find it helps to pour it onto the plate - although each bit will swell up a bit you can judge it by plate coverage (I use the helical tubes, amori at waitrose) as the swelling is mostly in the wall thickness not the size of each piece. If you see what I mean?

OR say 75g per person x 4 (for example) is 300g or 3/5 of a bag. Easy eh?

[melancholly]

i always put the raw stuff on the plate, then get caught out with spaghetti!! my garndmother used to have a measurer for it, a wooden thing with various sized holes - i tend to overestimate then eat it all myself anyway!

[sb44]

I always cook too much pasta for the two of us, not so much rice as my husband normally finishes all of that off!

Can someone please tell me what the dry weight of pasta should be per person?

I normally cook a cup of rice for two of us but he gets about 2 thirds of that.

[unixgirluk]

I usually find if its just a plain tomato sauce with it use 100g each that will give you loads, if there's meat and or veg in with it (say a pasta bake) then use about 75g

[champys]

Originally Posted by sb44

I always cook too much pasta for the two of us, not so much rice as my husband normally finishes all of that off!

Can someone please tell me what the dry weight of pasta should be per person?

I normally cook a cup of rice for two of us but he gets about 2 thirds of that.

You will have to find out what works for you - I did it by trial and error, using electronic scales. Started from the usual 100g per person which seems to be the norm. This was too much, we always had leftovers. Now I know that 150g for the 2 of us is exactly right. DH eats more of it than I do, but the total is correct. 150g dry weight also works for us for couscous.
The one I have not figured out yet in weight is potatoes!

[PasturesNew]

Originally Posted by sb44

I normally cook a cup of rice for two of us but he gets about 2 thirds of that.

That's how I've always measured out rice. I cook 1/3rd of a mug for me. Although I'd usually cook 2/3rds of a mug so I have a portion cooked ready for my next meal too.

I don't cook pasta. I just find it so pointless.... I just can't ever see pasta + sauce as being a meal.

[sb44]

Originally Posted by PasturesNew

I don't cook pasta. I just find it so pointless.... I just can't ever see pasta + sauce as being a meal.

I must admit we don't eat a lot of pasta but I made this dish yesterday which was more than enough for two of us and there is quite a bit left over my my husbands lunch today.

3 skinned chicken thighs (£1.35 for 6 at the minute in Lidl), tin of Cross and Blackwell vegetable soup (was 25p in discount shop), jar Dolmio Calabria pepperoni and tomato sauce - 25p discount shop) and some Tesco multi coloured spiral pasta.

I cooked everything in the slow cooker (except the pasta) for about 7 hours, took out the chicken and deboned it (easy as it fell off the bone), cut up chicken and put back into slow cooker. Cooked and drained pasta and added to chicken in sc.



Easy and very filling. If anyone hasn't tried the Dolmio Calabria sauce it is very very nice. Quite spicy with a distinct pepperoni flavour.

[sb44]

Thanks for your thoughts and advice everyone.

Will start by using 100g each and increase it if needed.

[calleyw]

Originally Posted by sb44

Thanks for your thoughts and advice everyone.

Will start by using 100g each and increase it if needed.

3 1/2 or 100g of dry weight is what is suggested on packets of pasta.

And now I have some new electric scales that allow me to zero and weigh again. It meant that for tea the other night I did 300g and that was three servings.

Normally I would have just chucked all the bag in but I had some left over. So that might help with portion sizes.

Did the same with my breakfast cereal so I know how much a portion size is.


Yours

Calley

[pavlovs_dog]

we buy uncle bens rice, because it is the only rice either of seem to be able to cook. that suggests a serving of 75g per person.

[crnflke]

I always do 70-75g of pasta per person which I find is more than enough for a substantial meal, and I do 50g of rice per person or half a mug for 2 people, which again seems like plenty, I used to cook way more than this when I used to just chuck it straight in the pan without weighing etc, which was so wasteful.

[Stephen Leak]

I've been thinking about 'cutting my rations' (oo-er, matron!) from 100g to 75g.

[Skint_Catt]

I use 1.5cups of rice for two of us and I put the dried pasta into the serving bowls first (just under the quantity I would like to see when its cooked) and put that in.

[weezl74]

Hi there, Just reviving this thread because I'm thinking about portion sizes at the moment.

DH has 150g of rice (dry weight) at dinner and needs 3 slices of toast/a pudding after that.

With the rice he would be having chilli/stew/curry a portion equivalent to 1.5-2 ladlefuls.

Seems from reading back this is not the norm... But perhaps only the people with delicate, small appetites responded?! Can I hear from anyone with a bigger appetite?

P.S DH is not overweight, he is 6 foot 3.5 and still quite a high metabolism at 34.

Thanks loads for any opinions