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Turmeric Lemon Rice Recipe. 10 minute Golden Rice with turmeric, lemon and mustard seeds. Indian Lemon Rice. Use cooked brown rice, quinoa, millet or couscous or cauliflower rice for variation. Easy side. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Recipe. Pin this post.
This super easy flavorful rice is a great side with simple dals, veggie curries or anything really. I posted a bowl with the Mango Dal, Bengali Veggies with the turmeric rice last week and got many requests for the turmeric lemon rice recipe. So here goes.
TGIF! Make this 10 minute lemony turmeric rice. Or use other cooked grains or cauliflower. I usually use Basmati Rice or a mix of white and brown basmati. Add veggies along the way or just make the plain rice and serve in a bowl of choice. Use up the left-over rice. Curry leaves are available in Indian Stores or online on amazon. The fresh leaves can be frozen for months in an airtight container. Use fresh or frozen right out of the freezer.
Heat the oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and let them really start to pop. If the mustard seeds don’t pop, they don’t release their amazing flavor into the food. This is one of the reasons, people often want to add more spices and flavors to the food, esp Indian food, as it feels like there isn’t enough in the dish. If the recipes call for roasting the spices with or without oil, the spices need to be roasted well for the flavor to really bloom into the dish. See video below and notice those popping mustard seeds!
Easy Turmeric Lemon Rice.
Served below with Mango Toor Dal, Easy Bengali Gobi Aloo, some Khakhra(Indian crackers).
More Indian recipes from the blog
- Festive Butternut Squash Pilaf with whole spices.
- Carrot Veggie Turmeric Pilaf /Fried Rice with Indian spices
- Mango Halwa Dessert
- Easy 30 min Veggie Pakora / Fritters.
Turmeric Lemon Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 to 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 tsp oil, high smoke point oils like organic safflower or organic canola
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, preferably black mustard seeds
- 8 to 10 curry leaves, fresh or frozen, whole or chopped
- 2-3 tbsp toasted cashews or peanuts, optional
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/3 tsp or more red pepper flakes, or 2 broken red chilies
- 2 tbsp or more lemon juice
- cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Cook the rice, fluff and keep aside or let the rice or other cooked grains you plan to use, come to room temp.
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and let them start to pop. i usually check the oil by adding 2-3 seeds. If they start to sizzle immediately or pop, the oil is ready.
- Add curry leaves and wait for a few seconds. Add turmeric and red pepper flakes and mix in. Reduce heat to medium low. At this point you can add roasted nuts(cashews or peanuts) or peas or both and mix in.
- Add a splash of water to reduce the temperature of the pan. then add the lemon juice.
- Add in the rice and mix in well. Add salt if the cooked rice was not salted. Cook for 2 mins. Taste and adjust salt and lemon. Cover and take off heat. Let it sit for 2 mins before serving. Garnish with cilantro.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRECISE INSTRUCTIONS AND YOUR INSIGHT!
I’m of Latin descent and I have never been able to cook rice perfectly to save my life. It was a bit of a downer, given my heritage – but your easy step by step guide helped me make my first perfect rice in 20 years!
Thank you again!
I’m so glad this worked for you! Thank you for stopping by!
Hi Richa
When I was little I used to make something with leftover rice that included mustard, lemon juice and olive oil steamed.
I will try this one thank you!!!
Just made this for dinner tonight- it was so good everyone loved it. Reminds me of the first time I ever tried “yellow rice” and I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since (with help from many a recipe!). Thank you!!
awesome
so tasty rice recipe so keep posting.
Hi Richa,
Is there a way to make it a complete meal by adding some beans or black lentils? If so, do I increase the spices and add more curry leaves?
Thanks.
yes you can toss in some cooked lentils, chickpeas or beans. Double up the spices and curry leaves and salt depending on if the lentils. beans are already salted.
Thanks, I’ll try to make it this weekend. I saw fresh curry leaves in the market and hope they’ll be there this week too. I love boldly spiced rich dishes and these days try to eat legumes every day hence my question.
you should get them and freeze them. the frozen curry leaves have fresh like flavor.
Thanks
Delicious! I finally managed to find curry leaves again (last bag!) I did add black lentils and will probably make this recipe again with some sort of legume to make it a main dish. Just had it for lunch. I love using new ingredients which give a dish a whole new flavour. Added some roasted cashews and cilantro on top. Love it! Now I need to find other recipes of yours that use curry leaves.
yay!! tons of curry leaves recipes onthe blog
https://fettabbau-trim.today/?s=%22curry+leaves%22
https://fettabbau-trim.today/2015/11/curry-leaf-pepper-chickpeas.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I just saw a response that you made mentioning being able to use dry curry leaves instead of fresh or frozen. No need to respond to my comment if that is the case. Thank you
yes you can use dry
Can I also use dry curry leaves for this meal?
I made this last week and it was such a hit I’m making it again. It was very easy and sooo delicious. I couldn’t find curry leaves, so I just left them out. Would you recommend a substitute?
if you can find dried ones (on amazon), those will work too. No good substitute really, but for variation you can add 1 bay leaf or kaffir lime leaf.
I LOVE this technique of frying the spices/seeds including the turmeric and then frying the already cooked rice into the flavored oil. So much different than the turmeric rice I usually make which is just adding the turmeric and any seeds to the rice as it cooks. I’m making this for the 2nd time in 3 days–and a double batch! Thank you so much for sharing!
Awesome!
Will the rice be spicy?
Hi Nicole, Red pepper flakes/chilies add the heat. You can omit or adjust per your taste. 🙂