Jeera Rice: Basmati Rice With Cumin Seeds: Indian Rice

Some one the other day asked me for the recipe of Jeera Rice and I was so shocked to know that the recipe is not on my blog. I mean you aren’t an Indian food blogger if you don't have jeera rice recipe on your blog. No seriously, I was so ashamed. Jeera Rice is like run in the mill in most of the Indian homes. Anyways, that day itself I made jeera rice clicked the pics and here I am posting it without any further delay.

Jeera as we call in Hindi is cumin seeds and is THE most important ingredient in Indian Punjabi cooking. Personally I cant do without this spice, be it paneer curries, kofta curries or homemade spice mix like chaat massala or garam massala. The ancient Ayurveda and age old wisdom of grandmothers insist on having cumin seeds because of its medicinal values.

Common benefits of cumin seeds are:

Improves digestion

Increases concentration

Reduces cholesterol

Weight loss

Relieve stress

Deceases bloating and gas

Detoxifies liver

Reduces menstrual cramps

Increases lactation in new mothers

Coming back to the post, Jeera Rice is basmati rice (chawal) which is flavored with cumin seeds. Cumin seeds are roasted in ghee or butter to release the aroma, later cooked rice is mixed in it. Now here is one modification that take place, some use cooked rice (boiled rice) while some cook the rice with cumin like how you would do for biryani or pulav. No method is right or wrong, you do what you prefer. Things that remains the same is ghee (clarified butter), some cloves (laung), bay leaf (tej patta) and lots of cumin seeds.

Use a good quality long grain basmati rice for best results. You can read a complete post on how to cook rice perfectly for moretips and clear idea. I always cook rice in microwave to save time and then just pour the cumin seeds tempering on the rice, mix and cover it for 1 minute so that flavoures remain intact. This is the Plain Jeera Rice recipe, which is more like day-to day rice; to give it more elegant restaurant feel then you must add cashews and raisins (kaju and kismis).

What to pair with jeera rice? Check these out:

Panchmel Dal

Simple Kadhi

Lehsuni Daal

Daal Makhani

Matar Paneer

In simple words, jeera rice is a step further both in looks and taste from the regular plain boiled white rice. The little golden coloured cumin seeds mixed with pure white boiled rice gives a uplifting colour combination. 

Author: Shweta Agrawal
Cuisine: Indian: Punjabi: Bangladeshi: Pakistani
Serves:2-3

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoon cumin/jeera

1 bay leaf/tej patta

2-3 cloves/laung

3 cups water

2 tablespoon butter/ghee

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash basmati rice two three times. Soak the basmati rice in water for 30-40 minutes. Drain the rice and keep aside.

Put rice in microwave safe bowl. Add 3 cups of water, lemon juice and salt. Cook on high power for 12 minutes. Cover the bowl with plate and cook again for 8 minutes.

Heat a pan. Add ghee or butter. Reduce the heat to low.

Add in cloves, bay leaf and cumin seeds. Let cumin seeds turn golden. Heat a pan.

Add cooked rice and stir with softly. Make sure not to apply lot of pressure else rice will become mushy.

Let it sit covered. Fluff the rice and serve jeera rice hot.

Notes:

You can also use cardamom (elyachi) or cinnamon (dal chini) in the recipe. However I don’t like sweet aroma in rice so I avoid it.

You can use vegetable oil or sunflower instead of ghee or butter.

Lemon juice helps to separate the rice grains and gives nice white colour.

Use good quality long grain basmati rice. I recommend Tilda Basmati Rice.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side with any indian curries.

Serve with lentils and dry curries.

Mix with salad, chutneys and stuff in tacos or burritos.