LEMON PEPPER RICE

Lemon Pepper Rice is a spicy, flavorful and easy to make rice recipe prepared using very basic ingredients in less than 30 minutes. This is vegan and gluten free. If you have left over rice, this recipe can be prepared in less than 10 minutes.

This is a no onion no garlic version that is offered to god in form of naivedyam and then served to the devotees. During navrathri, a festival that is dedicated to worship Durga maa and celebrated for 9 days, 9 different rice recipes (sweet and savory) are offered to her in form of naivedyam. I will soon share the importance of rice and the festival in my upcoming posts. This year it is celebrated from October 1st to October 10th, so I decided why not start sharing some recipes for the festival that will be useful for all of us.

I was surprised to see that I really did not post this recipe even after preparing it multiple times. This is also called chitranna in konkani / kannada. This is a comfort food and given that it is very easy to prepare I really do not wait for festivals to come 🙂 Whenever I have left over rice, I end up preparing this rice dish. You really don't need any measurements. Use the spices as per your taste. This is a no fuss recipe.

The crunchiness of chana dal and peanuts, spiciness of peppercorns and green chilies and flavor of asafoetida makes this rice simply irresistible. My family even loves to take this as a lunch-box dish.

Preparation time : 30 minutes
Serves : 2

Steps to prepare Lemon Pepper Rice

Step I

• Wash the rice and cook it according to the package instructions. Use any rice of your choice. Basmati or jasmine rice tastes the best.
• If using left over rice, ignore the step I.

Step II

• In a small pan, add ½ teaspoon coconut oil and peppercorns and saute it on medium flame for 3 to minutes till you get a nice aroma.
• Using pestle, crush sauteed peppercorns to coarse powder. Keep this aside.

Step III

• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in non-stick pan. Add mustard seeds. when they start to splutter add chana dal and saute till it becomes golden brown.
• To this add roasted peanuts, green chilies, ginger, hing, turmeric powder, pinch of salt and saute for another 1 minute.
• To this add the crushed pepper corns, lemon juice and mix well.
• Add in the cooked rice, coriander leaves and toss till combined.
• Lemon Pepper Rice is now ready. Garnish it with some more peanuts and coriander leaves if desired. Serve and enjoy.

Tip:

• If you love it spicy vary the amount of green chilies or peppercorns in the recipe.
• If you are not preparing it on vrat days, you can also add the onions in step III and saute till translucent.

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