Ellu Sadam | Sesame Rice
Ellu sadam or sesame rice is a simple and delicious South Indian style "variety rice" recipe prepared with roasted sesame seeds and lentils.
Servings: 4
Calories: 53kcal
Equipment
- Saucepan or kadai
- Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker to cook the rice
- Mixer jar or coffee grinder
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup rice I used sona masoori raw rice
- ⅔ cup water
- ¾ tsp salt or to taste
- 1 tsp gingelly oil
To roast and grind
- ½ tsp corn oil or any other cooking oil
- ⅛ tsp mustard seeds optional
- ½ tsp chana dal
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 2 dried red chilies
- 10 curry leaves
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds
- 1 tsp white sesame seeds
Instructions
Cook the rice and cool it down
- Rinse the rice thoroughly and cook in your preferred way. I cooked the rice on my stove-top pressure cooker by adding double the amount of water, i.e., ⅔ cup water for three whistles. Let the pressure release and let the rice cool a bit. I got about 2.5 cups of cooked rice.
- Then spread the rice on a plate and let it cool a bit. Add 1 tsp of gingelly oil and the salt and mix it. Adding oil and salt at this stage keeps the rice nonsticky.
Roast and prepare the sesame powder.
- Heat a pan or kadai and add the ½ tsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, dried red chilies, and curry leaves.
- Roast till the urad dal and chana dal turns light brown. Now add the black and white sesame seeds and roast for 30 to 45 seconds or until the sesame seeds sputter. Then turn off the heat. Let it roast further in the residual heat. Allow this mixture to cool and grind it into a coarse powder without adding any water.
Prepare the sesame rice.
- Now add the ground sesame powder to the rice.
- Gently mix and ensure the spice powder is evenly coated. And that's it. Sesame rice is ready. Enjoy with raita or dry curry or with papad.
Notes
- Adjust the salt and dried red chilies as per your taste.
- Roasting curry leaves and grinding it along with sesame adds a nice flavor. So do try it.
- We add an equal amount of white and black sesame seeds. You can add either one. But in our household, we always make this rice with black sesame seeds or with a combination not with white sesame seeds only.
- Let the rice cool before adding the spice powder.
- You can use quinoa, brown rice, millets, or any other rice variety instead of raw rice.
- If you can't source curry leaves, skip it. Yes, there is a slight change in flavor, but there is no substitute for curry leaves.
- I did not add any nuts. You can add 2 tbsps roasted peanuts or cashew nuts. Also, I did not add any separate tempering for this rice.
Nutrition
Calories: 53kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 440mg | Potassium: 72mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 309IU | Vitamin C: 82mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg