Rice and soup can be valuable (8)
I believe the answer is:
precious
'valuable' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'rice and soup can be' is the wordplay.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'can be' is an anagram indicator.
'rice'+'soup'='ricesoup'
'ricesoup' anagrammed gives 'PRECIOUS'.
(Other definitions for precious that I've seen before include "Very fastidious" , "Much loved" , "as good as gold" , "Of high worth or cost" , "costly" .)