Lemon Rice – Ready in 7 Minutes! (Made with Leftover Rice)
17 Feb
Have leftover cooked rice in your fridge? You can have a delicious meal ready in 7 minutes with this easy lemon rice recipe. Tangy, tasty, and super-quick – it’s a blessing on days when there is just no time to cook.
This recipe uses what we call kagzi nimbu in Hindi, which is ‘key lime’. So technically this recipe should have been named ‘lime rice’ except nobody calls it that. Right or wrong, ‘lemon rice’ it is.
[ Jump to Recipe ↓ ]Other than lemon (lime / nimbu) and rice, the key ingredients in this recipe are crunchy legumes – peanuts, chana dal, urad dal – and a finishing touch of fresh green coriander leaves.
Ingredients:
[Serves 2]
- Leftover cooked white rice – 2 cups
- Green chilies – 2 or 3
- Salt – to taste
- Peanuts (raw, unsalted) – 1/3 cup
- Chana dal – 1/2 tablespoon
- Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
- Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
- Asafoetida powder – a pinch
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Oil – 2/3 tablespoon
- Juice of fresh lemon/lime – 1 tablespoon (adjust to taste)
- Coriander leaves for garnish
In the picture above (anti-clockwise from top): peanuts, chana and urad dal, green chilies, lime, coriander leaves.
How To Make Lemon Rice with Leftover Rice:
Heat some oil in a wide non-stick pan.
When the oil is hot, add to it mustard seeds and let them splutter.
Set heat to low, and add asafoetida powder and raw peanuts.
Turn the peanuts around to coat them with the seasoned oil.
After a minute, add chana dal and urad dal.
Continue to cook till the dals turn a shade darker (1-2 minutes: keep a watchful eye, the dals go from raw to charred in a matter of seconds).
Mix in a pinch of turmeric powder.
Slit the green chilies diagonally into strips. Add the green chilies strips and cook for another few seconds, or till the dals are golden-brown.
Mix salt into the cooked rice.
Tip the salted rice into the pan, fold it in gently, taking care not to mash the delicate rice grains.
Let the rice cook along with the seasoning on low heat, spread out on the pan undisturbed for a minute.
Stir again and continue to cook for another two minutes.
Sprinkle fresh lime juice and mix well. Turn off the heat.
Garnish with coriander leaves.
Lemon rice is ready.
Serve lemon rice hot, with a lemon wedge on the side.
Accompaniment Suggestions:
Lemon rice is tasty enough standalone – in fact, the whole promise of having your meal “ready in 7 minutes” is lost if you have to cook up a bunch of accompaniments for this quick meal!
If you do want accompaniments, you can pair lemon rice with a simple potato side dish (suggestions: sliced aloo chokha style, aloo capsicum, aloo pyaz bhujiya), some crunchy papad, and an onion raita.
Its no-spill quality makes lemon rice fantastic to carry in the lunchbox.
FAQ:
Q. Can I use freshly cooked rice instead of leftover rice for this recipe?
Ans: You can, with a caveat – let the freshly cooked rice cool completely before you add it to the cooking pan with the crunchy legumes. Warm, just-boiled rice turns mushy in the cooking pan, which takes away from the texture and appearance of the final dish.
Q. Which type of rice should I use?
Ans: White basmati rice is my rice of choice for this recipe. It gives the lemon rice a lovely fluffiness. Basmati isn’t necessary though: lemon rice can be made with shorter grain rice as well (such as sona masoori), though that will produce slightly different results. Important: Avoid using rice with clashing flavors and aromas, such as jasmine rice or black rice.
Q. I don’t have urad dal and / or chana dal. What should I do?
Ans: You can exclude the dals, but you do lose out on some taste in doing so. You can increase the quantity of peanuts to make up for the missing urad and chana.
Q. I don’t have peanuts. What should I do?
Ans: Ummm don’t make lemon rice without peanuts! It just isn’t the same without. If you must go peanut-free, cook another similar dishes such as coconut rice or tomato rice.
Related Recipes:
Want more recipes like this that can be put together in under ten minutes? Check these out:
Here are more such one-pot vegetarian rice meals.
Quick-reference recipe card that you can save or print:
Lemon Rice - Quick Meal with Leftover Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups Leftover cooked white rice
- 2 Green chilies (3 if you like more heat)
- Salt (to taste)
- 1/3 cup Peanuts (raw, unsalted)
- 1/2 tbsp Chana dal
- 1 tsp Urad dal - 1 teaspoon
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 pinch Asafoetida powder
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 2/3 tbsp Oil
- 1 tbsp Juice of fresh lemon/lime (adjust to taste)
- Coriander leaves for garnish
Instructions
- Heat two teaspoons of oil in a wide non-stick pan. When the oil is hot, add to it mustard seeds and let them splutter.
- Set heat to low, and add asafoetida powder and raw peanuts. Turn the peanuts around to coat them with the seasoned oil.
- After a minute, add chana dal and urad dal. Continue to cook till the dals turn a shade darker (1-2 minutes: keep a watchful eye, the dals go from raw to charred in a matter of seconds).
- Mix in a pinch of turmeric powder.
- Slit the green chilies diagonally into strips. Add the green chilies strips and cook for another few seconds, or till the dals are golden-brown.
- Mix salt into the cooked rice. Tip the salted rice into the pan, fold it in gently, taking care not to mash the delicate rice grains.
- Let the rice cook along with the seasoning on low heat, spread out on the pan undisturbed for a minute. Stir again and continue to cook for another two minutes.
- Sprinkle fresh lime juice and mix well. Turn off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves.
- Lemon rice is ready. Serve hot with a lemon wedge on the side.
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