Jeera rice is a very basic and simple recipe of flavored rice. We Indians are basically rice lovers and hence varieties of flavored rice are found in India. This dish is served in all household, as it is very easy to make. This rice can go with any curry or gravy. Even a simple dal tadka is an awesome companion with jeera rice. Jeera rice has essentially tempering with cumin and fragrant whole spices and this takes the rice to a level notch up. Jeera rice is a very easy dish to be made that even a non-cook can make it.
You can try a lot of variation with this flavored rice. You can try adding various spices, as per your choice. You can add peas, carrots or any other vegetable to make it healthier. If you want to make it spicy, all you need to do is add green chilies along with the rice. If you want some color to your rice, add some turmeric powder. To enhance the taste further, take some thinly sliced onions and deep fry them. Add this as garnish. Not only will it enhance the look of the dish, it will make it tastier too.
Isn’t it simple? This recipe although seems simple, I bet you, once you eat this flavored rice, you will fall in love with it.
- Basmati rice-2 cups
- Cumin/jeera- 2 tsp
- Cinnamon/dalchini- 1 inch stick
- Bay leaf/tej patta-1 or 2
- Green cardamom/choti elaichi- 2
- Ghee or oil-2 tbsp.
- Salt- as per taste
- Water- 4 cups
- Soak the basmati rice for half an hour in water
- Drain out the water from basmati rice completely
- Take a thick bottomed vessel or a pan.
- Pour ghee into it.
- When the ghee heats up, put the cumin seeds in the pan
- Add cinnamon stick, bay leaf, cardamom into it and stir
- Put the rice into the pan and stir.
- Now put salt and add 4 glasses of water
- Let it boil once
- Stir and close it with a lid and keep it on low flame for some time.
- Water will get absorbed completely and then the rice will be ready.
- You can add coriander leaves for garnish
Note:- If you want to make it in pressure cooker then follow the same steps and after pouring water keep it on the pressure for 3 minutes and off the flame. There is another way of making Jeera rice and that is by adding the tempering at the end. For that wash the rice and boil it When you boil the rice, you can add cardamom and bay leaves into the water. This will infuse the flavor into the rice.
Once the rice is cooked, do the tempering.
- Take a tempering pan, add ghee
- Put cumin seeds when the ghee heats up.
- Add cinnamon stick, bay leaf and stir.
- Switch off the flame.
- Add this tempering into the rice and close it with a lid.