In 1969, I ate my first bowl of plain, boiled brown rice, then proceeded to live on it for a week, replicating the diet of a hippie girl to whom I hoped to demonstrate my sex appeal. (It didn’t work.) Twenty years later, brown rice became a minor but regular part of my repertory.

Now brown rice has not only lost its hippie stigma; it has also become sort of de rigueur, though it’s mostly relegated to a dull side dish served underneath or next to something more interesting — stir-fries, stews, chili — a worthy if obligatory “healthful” substitute for white rice.

It need not be this way. There are dozens of brown-rice varieties, because “brown” simply means “hulled but not stripped of bran layers.” Brown basmati has the same nutty aroma as white, with more chew; most brown short-grains release starch, just like arborio; most brown long-grains cook just like “regular” rice; and black, mahogany, purple, red — all those novelty rices are “brown” and can be treated in pretty much the same ways, and those ways are myriad.

Like white rice, all brown rice must be cooked in liquid, but depending on timing and ratio of rice to liquid — plus, of course, what you add to it — the final dish will vary considerably. Add water to cover by about an inch and a pinch of salt to long-grain brown rice, cover, simmer until the rice is tender and dry and you have the perfect base for a hearty salad. Sauté the rice in oil or butter before adding liquid, and you have pilaf. (The toasting results in perfectly fluffy, separate, flavorful grains.)