I tried Lakeland's £45 rice cooker and now I'll never buy a microwave pouch again – plus it's small kitchen friendly

At the tail end of last year, one of my favourite celebrity chefs Nigella Lawson shared that one of her ultimate kitchen appliances is a rice cooker, which she says she uses at least three times a week for quick, tasty lunches and dinners.

Following in her footsteps, I had to test out this rice cooker from much-loved kitchen brand Lakeland to see whether it was worth the extra investment over just one of the best saucepans. Here's why I've cleared a spot for it on my worktop.

At a glance

With this product, you get perfectly turned-out white or brown rice every time. There's a separate program for each, and all you need to do is prep the rice in the way you would if you were cooking it on the hob (wash it and add water, as well as any additional steps you'd usually do). Such excellent results mean that I've been using this product as much as Nigella uses her Judge rice cooker.

Porridge is another setting available, though the timings are iffy. It all ties into the biggest problem with this cooker: all 3 programs have different timings (white rice, brown rice, porridge) and you can't tweak the number of cooking minutes outside of that.

However, one positive aspect of this cooker is the delay function. You can delay the process from 1 to 12 hours, so if you want to wake up to hands-free porridge or set it off in time for dinner. It's limited by the fact that you can't use it with fresh ingredients, however.

There's also the option of using this rice cooker to make entire meals. I've been throwing in rice, stock, chicken, veg and seasoning and setting mine off on the white rice setting. 40 minutes later and there's four portions of nutritious lunch and dinner ready to go.

If you have the cash to spend and need a good-sized rice cooker, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one, even if the porridge setting needs work.

Specifications

• Capacity: 1 litre
• Dimensions: 29 x 24 x 24 cm
• Weight: 2 kg

Getting started

Seeing as the capacity of this rice cooker is only 1 litre, I was skeptical that it would be capable of the amount of portions that Lakeland claims (4 to 6 persons).

In reality, while it's not big by any account, it is a fair-sized appliance, taking up a little less space than my compact air fryer (which you can read about in my Our Place Wonder Oven review). Essentially, it still has a noticeable footprint, it's not miniature. It's not as small as something like the Judge rice cooker that Nigella swears by (£24.95 at Amazon), which only has a 300ml capacity. If it's one to two portions you want, go for that one.

The interface on the front is easy to work out. Simply prep your rice, turn the appliance on and press the button for the program you want. Each program has a timing attached to it (that unfortunately can't be changed) and once this timer runs out, the cooker will keep whatever is inside warm until you're ready (for up to 12 hours, incredibly!).

Cooking

First things first: it's foolproof for cooking white rice.

All you need to do is apply the prep process you usually would when cooking rice in a saucepan, but pop it into the cooker instead and press one button. You can then get on with cooking the other elements of your meal or just walk away from the kitchen altogether if you're pairing it with leftovers.

40 minutes later the machine will beep and you press the button on the top of the lid to open the cooker up. In the bottom your perfectly cooked rice will be waiting, which it has been for me on every occasion I've used it.

Some user reviews feel that 40 minutes is too long to wait for rice (compared to 25 minutes on your hob), but I think it doesn't feel overly long if you make it the first step of any other meal prep.

The quality of rice also far exceeds what I've ever managed on the hob, which makes up for the extra time. The keep warm setting also means that if your accompaniment to the rice takes longer to cook, it'll still be the perfect temperature when you come to serve up.

Brown rice generally takes longer to cook, so its preset time is extended here to 60 minutes. I think it's the right amount of time and the resulting rice tastes great.

When browsing Instagram for recipe inspiration, I came across a method using a rice cooker of throwing in rice, stock, chicken, veg and seasoning and leaving the usual rice-cooking program to work its magic. In search of an easy lunch I tried it out and was very impressed by the ease of the process. For a hands free dinner it's pretty genius, though you do have to be vigilant about overcooking the meat.

The last setting, porridge, also has a 1 hour timer setting which isn't to everyone's taste, especially according to user reviews on Amazon.

Many people think this huge amount of time makes your oats overcooked. I'm not much of a porridge connoisseur meaning that when I tried it out I didn't find too much of an issue with it, especially as I was being vigilant and standing over the pot but it is another problem that could be solved by customisable timings.

Lakeland also recommends against using the delay setting if you're cooking with fresh ingredients (like milk), which might spell trouble if you're wanting to use this to wake up to a pre-cooked breakfast.

What's it like to clean?

A large amount of steam builds up in the process of the rice cooking which means that cleaning this cooker regularly is essential to keep it working properly.

On the inside of the lid there's a removable disc that you can take off to properly clean once the cooker is cleaned. Though this is a good feature, it is a little laborious to do repeatedly and there is an argument for making the whole thing easier to maintain.

How does it compare to similar products?

For under £50, this is not the most affordable choice on the market for the size you get but it is from a retailer you can trust (Lakeland) which is worth investing in. If you want to size down and only need one to two portions at a time, then Nigella's recommendation, the Judge cooker at £24.95 from Amazon, comes recommended by our Deputy Digital Editor Rebecca Knight too.

If, alternatively, you want to amp up what a cooker like this can do, there's no better brand to turn to than Ninja. The Ninja Foodi Possible 8-in-1 cooker went down an absolute storm with our tester in our review, and the brand now has an updated version which includes a rice function. It will set you back £119.99 from Ninja and you get 7 other modes thrown in too.

Should you buy Lakeland's Digital Rice Cooker?

If you want to move away from microwave rice or find the business of cooking it on the hob too hit and miss, this relatively inexpensive rice cooker is sure to be a hit in your home. The porridge mode is less straightforward (though I found no real issue with it a and some users love it) but still a useful addition, as well as the keep warm and delay settings.