Cumin rice (Jeera rice). Love the distinct flavor and aroma of cumin seeds? Then create this restaurant favorite featuring simple rice cleverly infused with this fragrant spice. Serve this rice on its own, or pair with your favorite curry for an easy weeknight meal.
In fact, there’s no shortage of varieties to choose from when it comes to cooking with rice. I think each and every cuisine has its own unique rice dish focusing on local ingredients and cooking style.
Exploring such unique recipes is totally my idea of adventurous cooking. Discovering layers of flavors brings in a new level of deliciousness to these recipes.
So, today, we’re going to talk about a simple rice dish that also happens to be a restaurant favorite. Cumin rice or jeera rice. As the name suggests, the core ingredient in this recipe is, of course, cumin or jeera. Along with cumin, a few other spices like bay leaves, cloves, and cinnamon brings the whole recipe together.
Before you start cooking, prepare the rice. I highly recommend basmati rice in this recipe to recreate the authentic flavor. However, feel free to use your favorite, but remember the cooking times may vary. Soak basmati rice for about 20 minutes. And that’s the simple secret to fluffy long grain rice.
While the rice is soaking, start with heating up a little ghee. You can substitute ghee with oil if you like. But I really love that delicious touch a dollop of ghee adds to this cumin rice. Next, fry the dry spices - cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, cardamom and dried red chilies.
The drained rice is added to the spices at this stage. Give it a quick stir fry. Now, you’ll need to add in water along with a little lemon juice. And don’t forget to season. Cook rice until tender and water is absorbed. Once the rice is cooked, remove pan from heat, and set it aside for about 10 minutes to make the rice really fluffy.
There you go. A super simple cumin rice recipe apt for your weeknights. Pair it with your favorite side dish. Here are few side dish ideas:
- Paneer Butter Masala
- Butter Chicken
- Indian Chicken Curry
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- Chicken Vindaloo
- Malabar Chicken Curry
- Kerala Chicken Roast
- Lamb Rogan Josh
- Lamb Korma
- Fish Tikka Masala
- Goan Fish Curry
More quick and easy rice recipes:
- Curry Rice (Curried Rice)
- Lemon Rice
- Portuguese Rice
- Veg Fried Rice
- Egg Fried Rice
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Saffron Rice
- Indonesian Fried Rice
- Ginger Capsicum Fried Rice
Cumin Rice | Jeera Rice - Restaurant Style | Video
Ingredients
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 2 tablespoon ghee clarified butter
- 3 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 5 cloves
- 2 dried red chilies
- 2 and ½ cups water
- Juice from half of lemon
- Salt to taste
- Chopped coriander cilantro leaves, to garnish
Instructions
- Rinse rice under cold running water. Soak rice for about 20 minutes. Drain. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat ghee in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cloves and red chilies. Sauté, stirring constantly, for a minute or until fragrant.
- Add rice. Fry, stirring constantly, for two minutes or until it starts to change color. Add water and lemon juice. Season with salt. Stir gently.
- Bring to boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook, covered, for 3-4 minutes or until the rice is tender and water is absorbed.
- Remove from heat. Keep it covered and leave to rest for another 10 minutes.
- Garnish with coriander (cilantro) leaves.
Video
Nutrition
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Valentina says
The fresh herbs are so beautiful in your photos. 🙂 The rice sound delicious, and I love the aroma of cumin seeds. This would be great have at the ready to go with so many different things.
Stella Claire says
This is really helpful information. Thanks a lot for your post keep it up. Thank you so much!