Peanut Sesame Rice: 3-Ingredient Podi Rice

The southern states of India excel in the art of making various types of podi: literally ‘powder’, the word is used to describe ground dry spice blends. One really smart use of podi is as a ready-to-eat mix for plain boiled rice. Within seconds, a swirl of podi transforms plain boiled rice  into a fancy one-pot meal. The traditional podis I’m familiar with use a legume such as toor dal or chana dal as the base; this very simple 3-ingredient podi uses peanuts instead.  On days when there’s no time to cook a set meal of rice-dal-curry, this podi-based peanut sesame rice is a lifesaver.

You Need:

[for ~1 cup of peanut podi]

• Peanuts – 1 cup
• Sesame seeds – 1/3 cup
• Dry red chilies – 4
• Salt – to taste

[for 1 bowl of peanut sesame rice]

• Plain boiled rice – 1 bowl
• Peanut podi – 1 tablespoon
• Ghee – 1/2 teaspoon

How To Make Peanut Sesame Rice:

1. Make 3-ingredient podi:

In a thick-bottomed wide pan or tava, dry roast these ingredients one by one: peanuts, sesame, dry red chilies. Keep tossing or moving the ingredients around as they roast to allow even roasting. Take them off the heat when they turn a darker and give off a toasted aroma.

Let the roasted peanuts, sesame, dry red chilies cool to room temperature.

Grind the ingredients together, along with salt, to a coarse paste.

Remember not to continue grinding after the ingredients have reached a dry powder consistency. Peanuts and sesame release their oils after prolonged churning, which we don’t want – we are making peanut podi, not peanut butter.

2. Assemble the rice:

For each serving, add a tablespoon of peanut podi and some ghee to one bowl of hot cooked rice. Mix gently with a fork till the podi and ghee merged well with the rice.

Meal in the pic below: peanut sesame rice with drumstick raita.

Notes:

If you like the peanut-sesame ingredient profile, then you must try these recipes: