Every day I pack lunch for my family. I am happy and proud about that. But at times it gets daunting especially when you run out of ideas and recipes. Today I am going to share a keeper lunch box recipe with a seasonal veggie/fruit. It is the Kadarangai Saadam or the Wild Lemon Rice. It is a flavored rice prepared with wild lemon juice and tempered with spices in coconut oil.
Kadarangai Saadam
I prepared this rice with kadarangai from my garden, and this has a story behind it. :-) As I mentioned in my Adios 2017 post, I was learning, exploring and experimenting on my garden in 2017. Our previous owner had planted quite a few tree, and I didn’t know what they were as they didn’t bear any fruits. I joined few gardening groups and eventually learned that three of the trees belong to the citrus family and one was avocado, once was peach, and the other one was quince. (Will write separately about quince, peach, and avocado)
Out of the three citrus trees, one bloomed and we got a decent yield from that small tree. But the fun part was, we didn’t know what kind of citrus is that. We knew for sure it was not an orange and lemon/lime. I wasn’t sure it was citron(Narthangai) or wild-lemon (kadarangai) but finally got to know it is the wild-lemon. My amma, few of my friends and of course the online group friends helped me figure that out.
So what I did do with all those Kadarangai? Of course Gojju, pickle and this rice. The other recipes will be soon here in this space, but today let’s talk about the rice. It is precisely like lemon rice but instead of lemon juice we use wild-lemon juice. And, I used coconut oil for the tempering which helped in balancing that sweet and sour and bitterness of the wild-lemon. Of course, it added flavor to the rice too. :-)
So here is how I prepared this rice.
Kadarangai Saadam | Wild Lemon Rice Recipe
Kadarangai saadam or the wild-lemon rice. It is a flavored rice prepared with wild lemon juice and tempered with spices in coconut oil.
Ingredients:
- Rice – 1 cup
- Water – 2 cups
- Coconut Oil – 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Channa Dal – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves – 5 to 6 leaves
- Hing – ½ tsp
- Chopped Cilantro – 1 tbsp
- Cashew nuts – 1 tbsp
- Peanuts – 1 tbsp
- Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
- Green chilies – 2
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Wild-lemon / Kadarangai Juice – 3 tbsps
Prep-Work:
- Cook the rice in your preferred way by adding 2 cups of water or with required amount. I used Sona masoori rice for this recipe.
- Let the rice cool and set it aside. Make sure the rice is not sticky.
- Squeeze and extract the wild lemon juice and set aside 3 tbsps.
Steps:
- Heat the pan and add coconut oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and channa dal.
- When they start to splutter, add the curry leaves chopped green chilies, cashews, and peanuts.
- Roast them for a couple of minutes.
- Then add turmeric powder.
- Mix it and turn off the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice, wild-lemon juice, and salt.
- Gently mix them all together.
- Finally, add the chopped cilantro and serve it with chutney or potato curry or with your favorite fryums or chips.
Notes:
- I prefer non-sticky grainy rice for all variety rice. But you can cook according to your preference.
- Coconut oil adds a sweet flavor, but you can always replace it with your regular cooking oil or any other oil of your choice.
- You can either add peanuts or cashews or skip them too.
- I would recommend tasting the wild lemon juice to know the taste. We need to if it’s too sweet or sour or bitter. Accordingly adjust the green chilies, salt and the amount of wild-lemon juice.
📖 Recipe
Kadarangai Saadam | Wild Lemon Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup Rice
- 2 cups Water
- 1 tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tsp Urad dal
- 1 tsp Channa Dal
- 5-6 Curry leaves
- ½ tsp Hing
- 1 tbsp Chopped Cilantro
- 1 tbsp Cashew nuts
- 1 tbsp Peanuts
- ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 Green chilies
- 1 tsp Salt -
- 3 tbsps Wild-lemon / Kadarangai Juice
Instructions
Prep-Work:
- Cook the rice in your preferred way by adding 2 cups of water or with required amount. I used Sona masoori rice for this recipe.
- Let the rice cool and set it aside. Make sure the rice is not sticky.
- Squeeze and extract the wild lemon juice and set aside 3 tbsps.
Steps:
- Heat the pan and add coconut oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, and channa dal.
- When they start to splutter, add the curry leaves chopped green chilies, cashews, and peanuts.
- Roast them for a couple of minutes.
- Then add turmeric powder.
- Mix it and turn off the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice, wild-lemon juice, and salt.
- Gently mix them all together.
- Finally, add the chopped cilantro and serve it with chutney or potato curry or with your favorite fryums or chips.
Notes
- I prefer non-sticky grainy rice for all variety rice. But you can cook according to your preference.
- Coconut oil adds a sweet flavor, but you can always replace it with your regular cooking oil or any other oil of your choice.
- You can either add peanuts or cashews or skip them too.
- I would recommend tasting the wild lemon juice to know the taste. We need to if it's too sweet or sour or bitter. Accordingly adjust the green chilies, salt and the amount of wild-lemon juice.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
P.S. Follow my Pinterest boards for more healthy and delicious recipes.
I tried wild lemon rice a few times, and it never disappointed! :-)
Thanks
That looks yummy and nutritious tooo… will try it out for sure…
Thanks :-)