Parboiling of dehusked rice, that is, soaking of dehusked rice at initial temperatures of 70-100 degrees C and cooling at room temperature for 2 h followed by open steaming for 20 min, shade drying and polishing gives rice with quality attributes comparable with normal parboiled rice. The cooking time is reduced by at least 30%. The process saves about 40% energy and can be easily adopted by primary processors in developing countries. The rices have been organoleptically evaluated and found acceptable.