Lemon Rice

Easy Lemon Rice is a popular rice dish from South India.

This dish is tangy, crunchy and so flavorful. Pair with pickle or papadum for a delicious meal.

Sarvesh is a huge rice fan, he can eat it pretty much every day. While plain rice and dal is his absolute favorite, sometimes I like to change things up and make something different with rice.

Few of my favorite rice recipes are Curd Rice and this Lemon Rice.

This lemon rice recipe is very popular in South India. It’s tempered with spices like mustard seeds, curry leaves and has peanuts for the crunch and lemon juice for that tangy flavor.

It’s pretty straight forward to make and makes a great quick lunch or meal.

This Lemon Rice

✓ is easy to make and can get done in 30 minutes or less

✓ has a lot of flavor going on- crunchy peanuts, curry leaves and a strong lemon flavor!

✓ is vegan

✓ can be made gluten-free by skipping the hing (asafoetida)

For this South Indian lemon rice recipe, I first cooked the rice and then seasoned it with all the ingredients.

But you can also make it using leftover rice. I used 1 cup of uncooked rice here so its equivalent would be 3 to 4 cups of cooked rice.

I actually make this recipe often using leftover rice. Because we eat rice a lot, I am often left with few cups rice and this is a great way to use it.

In fact when you use pre-cooked rice, the cook time is reduced even further and you can make this dish in 15 minutes!

For tempering the lemon rice, I used mustard seeds, curry leaves, chana dal, urad dal, peanuts and fresh lemon juice.

You can even add cashews if you want. Even ginger would be good here, though I did not add it.

I like adding the chana and urad dal for the crunch in my lemon rice. Make sure, you soak the dals for 10 to 15 minutes in water before using them in the recipe.

It makes them softer and I like having that texture of the dal in my lemon rice.

Serving Suggestions for Lemon Rice

Lemon rice is typically served with pickle and papadum on the side.

You can enjoy it as such too, it doesn’t really need many accompaniments.

Method

1- Rinse rice until water turns clear. Then transfer to a pressure cooker with 1.5 cups water.

Cook on high heat for 2 to 3 whistles. You can also cook in your Instant pot, high pressure for 5 minutes with natural pressure release.

2-  Meanwhile soak urad dal and chana dal in water for 10 to 15 minutes as the rice cooks. Then drain the water from the dals and set aside.

3- Once the rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork and transfer to a large bowl and let it cool down. Then add the salt.

4- And the lemon juice and mix well until combined and set it aside.

5- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the peanuts to the pan.

6- Cook the peanuts until roasted and they turn light golden brown. Don’t burn them. Remove peanuts on a plate lined with paper towel.

7- To the same pan, now add mustard seeds and let them pop.

8- Add the soaked & drained dal to the pan. Saute until they turn light golden brown.

9- Add the curry leaves and chili. Saute for few seconds.

10- Then add the turmeric, hing and mix.

11- Remove pan from heat. Transfer tempering to rice along with the roasted peanuts.

12- Mix all the seasoning well with the rice. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste at this point.

Serve lemon rice with a side of pickle!

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This post has been updated from the recipe archives, first published in 2016.