Jeera rice is a flavourful, fragrant rice dish from North Indian cuisine.
It is made by combining fragrant basmati rice with cumin seeds. The prepration of jeera rice is pretty simple. There are multiple ways in which this dish can be made. You can prepare it in a pan, pressure cooker, microwave or instant pot. I have earlier shared the recipe of jeera rice made in microwave. Today, I am sharing the simplest recipe of jeera rice one can ever make. This recipe needs few basic ingredients – rice, cumin seeds, ghee, salt, lemon juice and fresh coriander leaves.
I have come across recipes where people use whole spices such as bay leaf, cardamom, cloves etc. to make jeera rice. But, I like to keep the recipe simple and use only cumin seeds as far as spices are concerned. Also, the dish has to live up to its name – jeera rice and hence jeera is the only spice used here.
Jeera rice pairs well with dals and wide range of curries such as Paneer makhanwala, Matar Paneer, Veg Kolhapuri, Malvani Chicken curry Methi Chicken and Dhaba style Egg curry.
The recipe which I follow to make Jeera rice is extremely simple. All you need is to cook rice and add it to a tempering of ghee and cumin seeds. You can make this with leftover rice too. The rice is cooked until they are 90% cooked. The cooked rice is allowed to cool and then added to a tempering of ghee and cumin seeds. This recipe will give you perfect, fluffy jeera rice.
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About Jeera Rice
Jeera Rice or Jeera Pulao is a flavourful, fragrant rice made with rice and cumin seeds. It holds a special place in Indian cuisine. This rice has earthy and nutty fragrance due to cumin seeds. The dish pairs beautifully with any type of dal or curries. It can also be served with raita. The cool refreshing raita and the aromatic jeera rice makes for a wonderful combination.
List of ingredients
Rice : Though you can use any rice to make jeera rice, the long grain basmati rice is best suited for this recipe
Cumin Seeds : Cumin seed is the important ingredient of this recipe. They provide distincy flavour and aroma to the dish.
Other ingredients : salt, ghee and coriander leaves
Step-wise recipe with pictures
Wash the rice well 2 to 3 times. Soak them in fresh water for 30 to 40 minutes.
To cook the rice, add water in a pot and bring it to a roaring boil.
Drain water from the soaked rice. Add soaked rice to the boiling water. Add salt and lemon juice.
Cook the rice until they are 90% cooked. This will take around 8 to 10 minutes.
Transfer the cooked rice to a strainer and strain. Allow the cooked rice to cool completely.
Next, heat a pan and add ghee. Add cumin seeds, when the seeds start crackling.
Add in the cooked rice. Sprinkle some salt and mix gently.
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve hot.
Notes :
Allow the rice to cool completely before making jeera rice. If you add hot cooked rice to the tempering the grains may break.
When the ghee is just about hot, add the cumin seeds. Do not allow the ghee to over heat or else the cumin seeds will burn.
For vegan version of jeera rice, replace ghee with oil.
Recipe Card
Jeera Rice | Easy Jeera Rice Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
Instructions
- Wash the rice well 2 to 3 times.
- Soak them in fresh waterfor 30 to 40 minutes.
- To cook the rice, add water in a pot and bring it to a roaring boil.
- Drain water from the soaked rice.
- Add soaked rice to the boiling water.
- Add salt and lemon juice.
- Cook the rice until they are 90% cooked.
- This will take around 8 to 10 minutes. Â
- Transfer the cooked rice to a strainer and strain.
- Allow the cooked rice to cool completely.
- To make jeera rice, heat apan and add ghee.Â
- When the ghee is just about hot, add cumin seeds.
- Do not  overheat the ghee.
- When the seeds start crackling, add in the cooked rice.
- Sprinkle some salt and mix gently.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Jeera rice is ready to be served.
Notes
Recipe Video
More Rice Recipes
Ghee Rice
Lemon rice
Mango Rice
Tomato Rice
Tamarind Rice
Masale Bhaat
Masoor Pulao
Matar Pulao
Matki Bhaat
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