And I (personally) do not eat much rice. Maybe once every 6 weeks or so. I 'spend' my carb calories pretty frugally. And most of the time I would rather have sweet potatoes or squash.
But I do make rice for the kids. Actually about once a week they make homemade 'fried' rice.
Our version has NO butter and NO soy. I steam frozen carrot/pea mixture. I make scrambled eggs. I chop/steam baked chicken to warm it. I make rice. And then the girls mix their own (youngest eats chicken, middle does not).
If you feel compelled to use soy - I would suggest REALLY looking at the labels - even for the low sodium kind - the salt is staggering. If I were using it - I would add a small amount to the water when I made the rice - a little bit would go a long way with this method. I have heard that there are soy substitutes and I also know that low sodium terriyaki is much lower content than low sodium soy (but it is still WAY too high for us).
Here is a low sodium web site to poke around - I am not saying that I would EAT most of this stuff - because I so would not - but it might give ideas on lower sodium.
I had a rice steamer but got rid of it because aluminum liner.
Then I tried crock pot and it was a sticky mess.
Then I tried top of stove and lived in fear of burning it - which I did several times - mess to clean up pan - whole house stunk.
I thought that the type of rice might be my problem. So I went to the food coop because they are just a wealth of information on most any cooking topic.
A lady at the food coop told me that all the rices tend to be sticky. And Basmati (which I was using) was one of the worst.
She told me that I needed long grain, brown. And then she told me to bake it.
I remember an old rice casserole recipe that my grandma used to make. It had BUTTER and dry onion soup mix and water and rice (I think that was IT) so I so would not make it now - but it started with all the ingredients going raw/dry in a casserole pan and then baking in the oven.
So I already had the notion that rice could be baked. And then when I thought about a rice steamer - I thought - it is actually just heating the rice - so that really isn't different than the oven.
Food coop lady said that she didn't have exact instructions but she thought the rice/water proportions were the same as on top the stove.I didn't look them up - I just tried 3 cups water and 1 cup long grain brown in an old corning ware casserole with a good/tight glass lid.
I did spray the casserole and the lid before starting.
I put rice/water in a cold oven and turned the heat on 350 degrees and set the timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes. I had a pan of squash in there too.
With 15 minutes left, I got nervous about the squash (they were little) and turned off the oven and opened the door, but left the rice lid on and the pan in the oven (door open).
And rice was really good. It was cooked and was not sticky.
PS - I have done baked rice twice (more) since I wrote this posting - rice was the only thing in the oven and 1 hour and 10 minutes was exactly right (starting with a cold oven). I add 10 minutes to take into account preheating time.
I teach the girls to do this (cold oven, 10 extra minutes) so they are not putting something IN a hot oven.
When it is time to take something out - I have them turn off timer, turn off oven, open oven door wide and just let it set a bit (I do not do this when it is 100 degrees and and 80% humidity, but the rest of the year - this is what we do.)
My kids cook a LOT and they cook independently. They use the oven, blender, food processors, etc. all the time - so I just teach them in a way that avoids injury.
Girls are 15 and 11 if you can't remember. The 11 year old has been cooking since she was 3-4 years old - but supervised with the appliances then.
I would not be the slightest bit surprised if she went to chef school. And you would be amazed at how much she takes it all in stride. She and my mother e-mail cooking stuff back and forth all the time. Right now they are working on healthy pie recipes for Thanksgiving.
I grew up with women that COOKED. My grandmas were still making noodles and crusts and bread by hand - and everything from scratch - for most of my childhood. They both had HUGE kitchen gardens.