Thengai Sadam | South Indian Coconut Rice Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Thengai Sadam or Coconut rice is a simple & delicious South Indian style variety rice recipe with coconut & nuts' goodness.

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Rice cooking time + cooling time30

Total Time45

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Tamil Nadu

Keyword: coconut rice, thengai sadam

Servings:

Calories: 217kcal

Author: Srividhya G

1 cup raw rice I used sona masoori rice.
2 cups water
2 tsp salt or to taste
3 tsps coconut oil divided, coconut oil preferred, but you can use other oil as well
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
5 curry leaves
2 green chilies finely chopped
4 tbsps mixed nuts I used pecans, walnuts, and slivered almonds
¾ to 1 cup coconut grated

Cook the rice in your preferred way. I cooked the rice in a pressure cooker by adding 2 cups of water. Spread the rice on a plate and let it cool a bit. Add 1 tsp of coconut oil and the salt and mix it. Adding oil and salt at this stage keeps the rice nonsticky.

Heat a pan and add the coconut oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, urad dal. Let the mustard seeds splutter.
Now add the curry leaves, green chilies, and nuts. Roast the nuts for 45 seconds to 1 minute.
Now add the coconut and reduce the heat to medium-low and roast the coconut until it turns light brown. Then turn off the heat.

Add the cooked rice mixed with salt and oil and gently mix.
Check for salt and, if required, adjust. If you are using cilantro, garnish it and serve with papad or dry curry of your choice. We personally like it with potato curry.

You can use leftover rice also. If I plan to pack this for lunch, I usually make the rice the night before to be more comfortable in the morning.
Adjust the salt and spices according to your preference.
Use nuts of your choice or skip it for a nut-free version.
As hing, chana dal, and cilantro tends to overpower the coconut flavor, we skip those. That's something I learned from my MIL and followed that. But as I mentioned in the post, I have added hing at times.
The spice measure works for 4 cups of cooked rice. After cooking the rice, measure the amount, and adjust the spices and salt accordingly.