Curd Rice
Curd rice is a popular and tasty South Indian dish that is served with a South Indian thali or meal. Curd rice is nothing but curd (yogurt) mixed with cooked rice, herbs and then tempered. Curd rice is also known as thayir sadam or daddojanam or bagala bath in some South Indian languages.
The simplest and basic curd rice is simply made by mixing cooked rice, curd and salt. To this basic mixture you can always add some spices or flavorings.
🍚 Ingredients🍚
For Cooking Rice
- ½ cup regular rice or 100 grams rice
- 1.5 cups water for pressure cooking
Other Ingredients
- 1 cup Curd or 250 grams curd (yogurt)
- ¼ cup milk or 62.5 ml milk
- 1 green chilli chopped
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon chopped curry leaves or 4 to 5 curry leaves, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves (cilantro leaves)
For Tempering
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram dal) – optional
- 5 to 6 curry leaves – chopped or kept whole
- ⅛ teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
For Garnish
- 1 to 2 tablespoons pomegranate arils – optional, sweet grapes can also be used instead
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves
🍚 Directions🍚
Cooking Rice
- Rinse ½ cup rice a couple of times in water. Then add the rice to a 2-liter pressure cooker.
- Add water. Stir very well.
- Pressure cook rice for 5 to 6 whistles or 8 to 9 minutes till the rice is cooked and softened very well.
- When the pressure settles down on its own, remove the lid and check the doneness of the rice. The rice has to be softer than what we cook on a daily basis.
- With a spoon or masher, mash the rice. Close the cooker and allow the rice to become lukewarm or come at room temperature.
Making Curd Rice
- When the rice becomes lukewarm or comes at room temperature, add fresh curd and milk.
- Mix again very well and break lumps if any. You can either use the spoon or masher while breaking the lumps.
- Add finely chopped ginger, finely chopped curry leaves, chopped green chilies and chopped coriander leaves.
- Instead of adding ginger and curry leaves to the rice, you can also fry them in the tempering.
- Add salt. Mix very well. Keep aside.
Tempering Curd Rice
- Heat a small pan or tadka pan and add sesame oil to it. You can use peanut oil or sunflower oil instead of sesame oil.
- When the oil becomes hot, lower the flame. Add mustard seeds.
- Let the mustard seeds crackle.
- Then add urad dal. Urad dal is optional and can be skipped.
- Fry on a low flame stirring often till the urad dal becomes golden.
- Lastly, add the add curry leaves and asafoetida. Mix very well.
- Switch off the flame and immediately pour the tempering into the curd rice mixture. Again mix very well.
- Serve south Indian curd rice topped with a few coriander leaves or pomegranate arils or grapes. You can skip the fruits too and just serve curd rice plain.
- You can also serve with fried sun-dried green chillies or south Indian mango pickle.
🍚 Notes🍚
- This curd rice recipe can be doubled or tripled.
- Some grated carrots and or beetroot can also be added. Note that beetroot will impart a pink color in the curd rice.
- Pomegranate arils can be skipped.
- Curd rice can be made with leftover rice or rice which has been precooked earlier.
- For small kids, you can skip the green chillies and ginger completely.
- Use fresh curd or yogurt.
- For vegan curd rice, use coconut milk yogurt or cashew milk yogurt or almond milk yogurt. Use vegan milk like thin coconut milk, cashew milk or almond milk.