Easy lemon rice recipe – A delicious flavorful tangy lemon rice

Many people in the West think of rice as a simple side dish, or combined with some common vegetables and meat and that’s all.
I even used to think the same. In fact, in my home country I was rarely having rice, I was preferring instead the vegetables, as side dish.

Here in India, rice can be cooked in many ways, from a side dish to a one pot rice meal, such as: biryani (rice cooked with meat or vegetables and spices), fried rice, yogurt rice, lemon rice, tomato rice, tamarind rice, jeera rice (rice with cumin seeds), coconut rice, garlic rice, pineapple fried rice, mango rice, etc. There are people in India having rice on a daily basis.

Cooking rice is pretty convenient, less time to spend in the kitchen, left over rice can be used in other recipes (one of my favorite ways to use left over rice is to make rice kebabs, I will post the recipe soon), rice is nutritious and easily digestible, gluten free, and what I like the most is that rice can take on the flavors of any ingredient you are cooking it with.

If you follow my blog regularly, you’ve probably noticed by now that I don’t use very often a pressure cooker or a rice cooker. My preference goes to the old rice boil method, in a simple covered pan, mainly because I like more the texture of the cooked rice, more fluffy and not sticky.

Lemon rice is one of my favorite Indian rice recipes. It is easy to make, with just few ingredients, goes well with almost any curry, dry vegetables, eggs or as a meal by itself.
Lemon rice it’s a kid friendly dish, my daughter enjoys it and even more, when I add some carrot or potato into.

Here is how to make lemon rice step by step, hope you try this recipe and let me know how it turns out for you.

Lemon rice can be done with fresh cooked rice or with left over rice.

If you are using uncooked rice then start by washing and soaking rice and dal, separately, for 15 minutes. Once soaked, wash, drain the water and keep aside.

In a deep pan, bring 3 cups of water to boil. The water level should be to 1/2-inch above the rice.

Add soaked rice and let it simmer covered, on low-medium flame, until the rice gets cooked (it will take about 15 minutes). Turn off the flame and let the rice rest for five minutes.

Once done, remove from the stove, drain off the excess water, take a fork and fluff the rice so you will have nice separate grains. Keep the cooked rice aside.

In a small bowl, mix lemon juice with turmeric powder and salt.

Now take another pan, heat some oil and add the mustard seeds and dried red chilli. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, reduce the heat to low flame and add soaked and drained dal and lemon juice mixture. Simmer for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now it’s time to add the cooked rice along with ginger and chopped green chilli (if using). Stir gently for about 1 minute and your lemon rice is ready to serve!

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and unsalted peanuts.

If you prefer, you can roast a bit the peanuts, also add cashews or other dried fruits.

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