Lemon Rice

As much as Jordan hates plain rice, he is a big fan of seasoned or flavoured rice. So to make my life easy from feeding him for hours and going crazy, I depend upon these flavoured rice for our meals. If its flavoured rice, there would be a happy and silent toddler eating his own food rather than a cranky toddler whom I have to feed.

Lemon rice had been one flavoured rice that my mom used to make for our train journey to our home town. For a 4 day train journey, this lemon rice was a must in our food bag. We used to love having it. Now when it is a train journey, you may not have too many sides to have a lavish meal. But this lemon rice with some pickle was more than enough to tickle our taste buds and make it the most loved meal of the day.

It makes an amazing variety option for your daily lunch or tiffin. Simple, yet so different and unique in taste, they are a big hit at home. This is how we make it at our home.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of cooked rice
2. Lemon juice from 1 large lemon
3. 1 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
4. 3/4 tsp of mustard seeds
5. 1 tbsp of chana dal
6. 1 tsp of urad dal
7. 3 tbsp of peanuts
8. 3 dry red chillies
9. 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
10. 1 sprig of curry leaves
11. A pinch of Asafoetida
12. Salt to taste

Method

• Take the cooked rice in a large bowl. While it is still hot, add a tsp of oil and salt to it and mix it.
• Heat a pan with sesame oil. Once hot, add the mustard seeds and let it pop. Once they pop, add the chana dal, urad dal, peanuts, red chillies and curry leaves. Once they fry, add asafoetida and turmeric powder. Switch off the heat and add lemon juice to it.
• Pour this seasoning mixture on top of the rice and give it a mix to distribute it evenly.
• Adjust salt. Serve it with sides of your choice.

Tips

1. You could add the lemon juice directly to the rice before pouring the seasoning on it.
2. You could use green chillies in seasoning if you want more spiciness in your lemon rice.