Spiced Yellow Rice
We love this spiced yellow rice recipe and make it in so many different ways. It’s the perfect way to jooj up plain old rice and add heaps of flavour, so you can relax a little with the other components of your meal.
Every now and then you’re given a recipe that changes the way you cook in the kitchen. This is it ladies and gentlemen.
From my friend Gloria’s mum. Gloria always talks about her mum would make these bountiful dinner spreads and with a family of 7, a lot of food was required and you have to be quick.
With my reputation of being a painfully slower eater, this wouldn’t have ended well for me.
This recipe is one of 8 I share in my free ebook Get Your Shit Together. You can download the ebook here. A small free guide I made for you to start your meal prep journey.
I love making this dish in a big batch on a Sunday. It keeps so well in the fridge and makes getting a healthy lunch ready a little bit easier.
It’s so delicious cold too, which is great for a dose of resistant starch (fibre).
Spiced yellow rice. With the easiest ingredients and i reckon they’re already in your pantry
Onion, garlic, carrot – this is our base, we cook this down to create some caramelised flavour
Brown mustard seeds, turmeric powder, curry leaves – this is our spice, flavour and colour. This spiced yellow rice gets its beautiful bright yellow colour from the turmeric. You can also add saffron, which will give this rice it’s yellow colour and impart a different flavour too.
Basmati rice – I used a mix of 50/50 white and brown. My jar in the pantry has both in the one jar. I love brown because it’s more whole, but I will say, it doesn’t absorb the flavour as easily as white basmati rice does. If you have the time, or remember to, soaking your rice overnight in water with 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar will help improve digestibility (and allow your body to absorb the goodness too).
Water (or broth) – if using water I add 1 tbsp Gevity Body Glue – broth has so many health benefits and anywhere I can, I’ll sneak it into our meals.
Frozen green peas – this one is for our toddler who is currently obsessed with peas. The green colour is so good, you could add chopped kale or baby spinach too.
Spiced Yellow Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp coconut oil/ghee/extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- A few garlic cloves
- 1 carrot grated
- 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Optional: curry leaves
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1.5 cups water or broth - if using water I add 1 tbsp Gevity Body Glue
- 1 cup green peas
Instructions
- In a pot, heat coconut oil on medium heat. Add onion and carrot (if using), sautee gently for 10 mins.
- Once onion is beautifully fragrant and translucent, add garlic, mustard seeds, turmeric, curry leaves and rice. Cook for 1 minute, making sure rice doesn’t stick/burn to pan. This helps crispy up the rice a little bit and activates the mustard seeds/curry leaves (if using), which brings more flavour.
- Add water (and Body Glue or broth). Bring to boil (that’s lots of big bubbles in the pot, as opposed to simmering, which is lots of little bubbles). Boil with lid on for 5 minutes. During this time the rice will soak up most of the liquid.
- Reduce heat to low, with lid on, gently cook for 15 - 20 minutes.
- Once 15 minutes is up, rice will be ready to go. Use a spoon/spatula to scrape up the crunchy bits on the bottom of the pan, they’re the best.
- If adding peas, I add these in the last 5 minutes of cooking to gently heat through from frozen.
