Lemon Rice – Dinner in Seven Minutes!

Have boiled rice in your fridge ? Congratulations – you can have your dinner ready in seven minutes flat, with this lemon rice recipe. Tangy, tasty, superquick – it’s a blessing on days when there is just no time to cook.

You Need:

[Serves 2]

• Boiled white rice – 2 cups
• Green chilies – 2 or 3
• Salt – to taste
• Peanuts (raw, unsalted) – 1/3 cup
• Chana dal – 1/2 tablespoon
• Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoons
• Asafoetida powder – a pinch
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Oil – 2 teaspoons
• Juice of fresh lemon/lime – 1 tablespoon (adjust to taste)
• Coriander leaves for garnish

In the picture above (anti-clockwise from top): peanuts, chana and urad dal, green chilies, lime, coriander leaves.

How To Make Lemon Rice:

Heat two teaspoons of oil in a wide non-stick pan.

When the oil is hot, add to it mustard seeds and let them splutter.

Set heat to low, and add asafoetida powder and raw peanuts.

Turn the peanuts around to coat them with the seasoned oil.

After a minute, add chana dal and urad dal.

Continue to cook till the dals turn a shade darker (1-2 minutes: keep a watchful eye, the dals go from raw to charred in a matter of seconds).

Mix in a pinch of turmeric powder.

Slit the green chilies diagonally into strips. Add the green chilies strips and cook for another few seconds, or till the dals are golden-brown.

Mix salt into the boiled rice.

Tip the salted rice into the pan, fold it in gently, taking care not to mash the delicate rice grains.

Let the rice cook along with the seasoning on low heat, spread out on the pan undisturbed for a minute.

Stir again and continue to cook for another two minutes.

Sprinkle fresh lime juice and mix well. Turn off the heat.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Lemon rice is ready.

Serve lemon rice hot, with a lemon wedge on the side.

Notes:

This recipe uses what we call kagzi nimbu in Hindi, which is ‘key lime’. So technically this recipe should have been named ‘lime rice’ except nobody calls it that. Right or wrong, ‘lemon rice’ it is.

Take a look at other recipes that can be put together in under ten minutes:

Also see this round-up of one-pot vegetarian rice meals.