South Indian special lemon rice/elumichai sadam recipe! A delicious variety rice recipe made with lemon juice, turmeric, and minimal spices.
South India is known for its “variety rice” recipes, and this tangy and flavorful lemon rice is a pretty popular one among the lot. Some of the other popular ones are coconut rice, tamarind rice, sesame rice, tomato rice, cilantro rice and the list goes on.
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The easiest variety-rice recipe
Lemon rice is popularly known as elumichai sadam in Tamil, nimmakaya pulihora in Telugu, and nimbehannu chitranna in Kannada. Today, I will share the simple version of lemon rice as we do in our household without any onion. It’s not only a perfect lunch box recipe; you can also make it for picnics and potlucks and also as a neivediyam/offering to God. Our Adi Perukku menu is incomplete without this rice.
Among the “variety rice” recipes, this lemon rice is the simplest and easiest to prepare. If the rice is ready, you can make this in less than 15 minutes. Now you know why you can find lemon rice quite often in my weekly meal planners. It’s kiddo’s favorite as well, so I keep rotating it often.
Now without any further ado, let’s the ingredients and procedure in detail.
Ingredients required for lemon rice-
✔ Oil to temper – You can use any neutral oil of your choice. I made this today with peanut oil. You can also use coconut oil for enhanced flavor.
✔ Tempering Ingredients – We use mustard seeds, urad dal, and chana dal. I didn’t add any hing/asafoetida as I included Ginger.
✔ Nuts – Typically, we add peanuts or cashew nuts. We like peanuts, but nuts are optional here. Schools here strictly say nut-free lunches, so most of the time, I skip the nuts.
✔ Spice and Salt – We use green chilies to spice this dish. Adjust the chilies according to the variety, size, and as per your taste. The same goes for the salt as well.
✔ Ginger, cilantro, and curry leaves – Ginger enhances the flavor of this lemon rice, and I insist not to skip it. If you can source curry leaves, add them; if not, you can skip. You can add up to 2 tbsp of cilantro. When I make it for picnics or potlucks, I add a little extra. The combination of cilantro and lemon is so good. If you like that combination, do check out my lemon cilantro soup as well.
✔ Lemon – The key ingredient in this dish. While fresh ones are the best, you can go with store-bought packed lemon juice too. I know we can find a lot of lemon varieties in the US, like the Meyer variety, Persian, and hybrids. Try to avoid the sweet varieties as we need that tangy flavor for this rice. I prefer the small ones that we get in Indian stores. You can use lime as well. Adjust the measure as per the lemon variety. Start with 1.5 tbsp and add as needed. I used a little over 2 tbsp of lemon juice for this measure.
✔ Rice – I have used sona masoori raw rice, the short-grain variety. Either raw or boiled rice works well, but you can use the grain of your choice. Millets are a great option too. Make sure the cooked rice is slightly warm or at room temperature.
Dietary specifications and serving and storage suggestions.
This lemon rice is vegan by nature and gluten-free as well. You can skip the nuts to keep it nut-free.
I would consume the lemon rice the same day and would not refrigerate it. Reheating lemon rice is not good as it makes the rice bitter.
Serve the rice with fryums, papad, chips, or any dry curries of your choice. I served it with potato curry.
Prep-work | Cooking the rice for lemon rice
Cook the rice in your preferred way, either in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot or rice or in an open-pot method. Make sure the rice is not mushy and nonsticky. I cook the short grain, either ponni or sona masoori rice, with 1:2 (rice to water ratio). Depending upon the rice variety and age, the yield might be different. We need 3.5 to 4 cups of cooked rice for this elumichai sadam. Typically 1 cup of uncooked rice will yield a little over 3 cups of cooked rice.
Spread the rice on a plate and let it cool a bit. Add ½ tbsp of oil and the salt and mix it. Adding oil and salt at this stage keeps the rice nonsticky.
How to make lemon rice/elumichai sadam
- Heat a saucepan and add the oil. Add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, chopped ginger, green chilies, and curry leaves when the oil is hot.
- Let the mustard seeds splutter and then reduce the heat to medium-low and add the peanuts and turmeric powder. Roast until the peanuts turn light golden brown. Turn off the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice mixed with salt and lemon juice. Do not mix and let it sit for 5 minutes undisturbed. After 5 minutes, mix the rice gently.
- Finally, add the cilantro and gently mix. That’s it; lemon rice is ready. Serve it with papad, fryums, chips, or any dry curries of your choice. It pairs well with potato curry.
Recipe notes
- Skip nuts for a nut-free school safe recipe.
- Adjust the salt, green chilies to taste.
- Depending upon the lemon variety, adjust the amount. We need a slightly tangy taste, so start with 1.5 tbsp and add as needed.
Explore other lemon recipes
Love lemons like me? Apart from lemon rice and lemon pickle, there are quite a few lemon recipes on my blog. Some of the popular ones are here.
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📖 Recipe
Lemon Rice | Elumichai Sadam
Ingredients
Measurement Details: 1 cup = 240ml; 1 tbsp = 15ml; 1 tsp = 5ml;
- 1.5 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dal I used split urad dal
- 1 tsp chana dal
- 2 green chilies finely chopped, adjust to taste
- 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
- 10 curry leaves tear it into small pieces
- 3 tbsp peanuts
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 4 cups cooked rice loosed packed, preferably a short-grain variety. Slightly warm rice. Refer notes.
- 1.5 tsp salt heaped tsp, adjust to taste
- 2 to 2.5 tbsp lemon juice preferably freshly squeezed
- 2 tbsp cilantro finely chopped
Instructions
- Prep-work:
- Cook the rice in your preferred way, either in the pressure cooker or Instant Pot or rice or in an open-pot method. Make sure the rice is not mushy and nonsticky. I cook the short grain, either ponni or sona masoori rice, with 1:2 (rice to water ratio). Depending upon the rice variety and age, the yield might be different. We need 3.5 to 4 cups of cooked rice for this elumichai sadam. Typically 1 cup of uncooked rice will yield a little over 3 cups of cooked rice.
- Spread the rice on a plate and let it cool a bit. Add ½ tbsp of oil and the salt and mix it. Adding oil and salt at this stage keeps the rice nonsticky.
- How to make lemon rice/elumichai sadam
- Heat a saucepan and add the oil. Add mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, chopped ginger, green chilies, and curry leaves when the oil is hot.
- Let the mustard seeds splutter and then reduce the heat to medium-low and add the peanuts and turmeric powder. Roast until the peanuts turn light golden brown. Turn off the heat.
- Now add the cooked rice mixed with salt and lemon juice. Do not mix and let it sit for 5 minutes undisturbed. After 5 minutes, mix the rice gently.
- Finally, add the cilantro and gently mix. That’s it; lemon rice is ready. Serve it with papad, fryums, chips, or any dry curries of your choice. It pairs well with potato curry.
Notes
- Skip nuts for a nut-free school safe recipe.
- Adjust the salt, green chilies to taste.
- Depending upon the lemon variety, adjust the amount. We need a slightly tangy taste, so start with 1.5 tbsp and add as needed.
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.
Update notes: Earlier posted in 2011. Now updated with new pictures, recipe card with nutritional information.
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