Rashmi Sharma Coconut rice is a South Indian rice dish that’s flavorful, flavorful, and light. It’s created with fresh shredded coconut, lentils, herbs, and spices. Thengai Sadam is the name of this mild, nutty rice-based dish in Tamil. The coconut rice dish is gluten-free and vegan if you omit the asafetida.
Coconut Rice is a popular and common rice-based dish in the South Indian areas. This recipe is rather easy to prepare by combining cooked rice with sautéed or fried lentils, herbs, spices, and coconut.
This particular rice dish is also known as “Thengai Sadam” in Tamil, as I already explained. The Tamil words for rice and coconut are thengai and sadam.
During the South Indian festivities of Pongal and Navratri, coconut rice is prepared. We primarily visited places of interest and numerous temples during my travels to numerous cities and towns in Southern India. Pongal, curd rice, and coconut rice were offered to us in a few of the temples there.
The South Indian cuisine has quite a few adaptations of this recipe. The star of this dish is my coconut rice recipe, which uses recently shredded coconut.
The lentils and cashews give the food a nice crunch and nutty flavour. To give the rice a little smoky, pungent heat, I add both red and green chilies.
If you grated the coconut in advance as preparation for thengai sadam, the dish comes together swiftly. It should come as no surprise that using fresh coconut enhances the flavour of the dish. However, frozen coconut can be used in a pinch.
There is a coconut milk version of this dish. The Coconut Milk Rice dish differs in that the rice grains are cooked in coconut milk along with herbs and spices.
The smoothness of coconut milk paired with the various cooking techniques make the flavour of coconut milk rice absolutely diverse.
When I want to cook something quick, I frequently use these straightforward rice variants. I also enjoy making the simple rice dishes lemon rice and mango rice.
Coconut Rice Recipe | What is the Recipe of Coconut Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 1 cup coconut
- 3 tbsp ghee
- black gram dhal
- broken pieces of nuts
- dry chillies
- curry leaves
- asafoetida powder
- coriander leaves finely chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
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Fry coconut evenly to a golden colour on a slow fire.
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Heat 3 tbsp of ghee. Fry the cashewnuts and remove.
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Fry the broken pieces of dry chillies, black gram dhal, and curry leaves well.
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Mix rice, coconut, nuts, 1 teaspoon of ghee and salt.
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Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.
Tips:
- Rice: Basmati rice works wonderfully for Coconut Rice, but you can use any variety of long-grain or medium-grain rice. Make sure the rice is not overcooked, as you want the grains to remain separate.
- Fresh Coconut: If fresh coconut is not available, you can use desiccated coconut or frozen grated coconut. However, fresh coconut gives the best texture and flavor.
- Spices: You can adjust the spices based on your preference. For a more aromatic rice, you can add a small piece of cinnamon, a couple of cloves, or cardamom while cooking the rice.
- Vegan Option: For a vegan version, skip the ghee and use oil instead. The rest of the ingredients are naturally plant-based.
- Protein Addition: You can add cooked vegetables, tofu, or even chickpeas to make it more of a one-pot meal.
Serving Suggestions:
- Curries: Coconut rice pairs wonderfully with rich curries like Vegetable Korma, Chana Masala, or Paneer Butter Masala.
- Raita: It also goes well with cooling raita (such as cucumber raita or boondi raita) or a simple pickle for added flavor.
Enjoy your Coconut Rice – a flavorful, fragrant dish that’s perfect for any meal!
