Lemon Rice Recipe
No matter where your set your plate, it’s likely that rice will be one of the side dishes served on any international dinner table.
This is a super simple dish for your lunch or dinner and also super easy to make. Make on stovetop pan/ pot or in an instant pot, this won’t take much of your time. You can use your leftover rice for this recipe to give them a nice twist of flavours……..!!
Lemon Rice Recipe hebbars kitchen
Though this rice is a way similar to the popular cilantro lime rice, this is a little different with a different flavor and taste.
INGREDIENTS
Basmati Rice – Long grains are the best (at least I prefer them the most for my rice recipes). However, you can also make them with Jasmin rice.
Onion – sliced onion
Ginger – around 1-inch ginger crushed. You can also add garlic to the rice. However, I love it with ginger only.
Lemon Rice Recipe ingredients
Lemon – lemon juice + lemon zest. Can substitute lemon with lime too.
Nuts – Handful of peanuts to add crunchy bite to the fried rice. However, you can also add some cashews and almonds for extra bite and richness to the rice
Spices – Cumin seeds + mustard seeds, Turmeric powder, salt, cayenne pepper or paprika (substitute for green chillies), asafoetida or thing. Turmeric powder is essential for the lemon rice. Asefoetida brings on a nice flavor and prohibits flatulence that may be caused by the nuts.
Herbs & chillies – Curry leaves, coriander leaves, green chillies like serrano peppers or jalapeno or any of the chilli you can take.
However, you can also skip the green chillies if you can’t resist the heat or substitute that with a pinch of cayenne or paprika or chilli powder.
Process:
If you are making this from freshly cooked rice, then 2 things you need to do to get better non-sticky rice. 1- I never overcook the rice for such a fried rice recipe. It should be just done (cook al dente) and immediately strain out from hot rice water using a colander. 2 – Rinse them in a colander under tap water. This stops over-cooking of rice in its own heat.
There is another reason behind this. While cooking rice, the water gets all starch from it. So when we remove water after it’s cooked, the excess starch is washed off. At the same time, if we cook rice in a pressure cooker, all starch will again be absorbed by the rice itself during the process.
So if you are making this in an instant pot, there is no opportunity to get the starchy water out. So I prefer to remove the water once my rice is cooked, though instant pot takes lesser time for the whole preparation.
add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 10-15 curry leaves, zest of 1 lemon, 1 tsp minced ginger, 1 tsp green chillies. Saute for a second.
Then add sliced onions and saute till translucent. Now add in fried nuts, turmeric powder, chilli powder (optional). Now add rice to the pan and mix gently. Add salt, lemon juice and lots of freshly chopped cilantro leaves. Lemon rice is ready……….!!
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Tags – Lemon Rice Recipe, Recipe