Curd Rice | Indian Yogurt Rice | Thayir Sadam

Best Indian curd rice (yogurt rice / thayir sadam) in a serving bowl with tadka or tempering.

5 from 7 votes

Curd Rice | Indian Yogurt Rice | Thayir Sadam

Curd rice or Yogurt Rice is a healthy and delicious, traditional South Indian comfort food prepared using cooked rice, curd (dahi or yogurt), and tempering with aromatic spices in less than 30 minutes. It tastes the best when served with pickle and papad. It is also popularly known as mosaranna, thayir sadam, and daddojanam.

Prep Time5

Cook Time15

Total Time20

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Andhra Pradesh, Indian, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 360kcal

Author: Kushi

Equipment

Pot
Tadka Pan

Ingredients

1 cup Rice
2 cups Yogurt (Curd)
½ to 1 cup Water, approx (add only if the rice becomes thick, adjust accordingly)
Salt, to taste

For the tempering / tadka

2 tablespoon Oil Coconut oil or any cooking oil of your choice.
1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon Urad dal
1 tablespoon Chana dal
¼ tsp Asafoetida / Hing
1 ½ tablespoon Cashews
1 tablespoon Almonds optional
1 tablespoon Ginger julienne
1 Green chilie chopped
1 Dry red chilie broken
8 Curry leaves

Instructions

Mixing curds with rice

Cook the rice in any method that you are comfortable with (stove top or pressure cooker). Let it cool down to room temperature.
1 cup Rice
To this cooked rice, add yogurt, salt, and mix well. Depending on how thick your curd is, you may have to adjust the water accordingly. I have used very thick, full fat yogurt.
2 cups Yogurt, ½ to 1 cup Water, approx, Salt, to taste

Making the tempering or tadka

Heat oil in a pan on medium flame. Add mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, add cumin seeds, urad dal, chana dal, and hing.
2 tablespoon Oil, 1 teaspoon Mustard Seeds, 1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds, 1 teaspoon Urad dal, 1 tablespoon Chana dal, ¼ teaspoon Asafoetida
When the dal starts becoming light golden in color, add cashews, almonds, ginger, and saute for a few seconds
1 ½ tablespoon Cashews, 1 tablespoon Almonds, 1 tablespoon Ginger
Add green chilli, red chilli, and curry leaves, and saute for a few more seconds. Switch off the flame.
1 Green chilie, 1 Dry red chilie, 8 Curry leaves
Pour the seasoning over the curd and rice mixture. You can serve it immediately or store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Notes

You can even mix the rice and curd, refrigerate and add the tempering or tadka just before you are ready to serve.
This rice thickens, so adjust consistency before serving by adding more curd and water or a mixture of both.
See that you use fresh, thick curd and not sour ones.
For better taste, make sure you are generous with seasonings (tempering). This gives rice additional flavor and taste:-)
Feel free to garnish with pomegranate, grated carrots, and finely chopped coriander leaves if desired.
Skip the chilies if serving toddlers and infants.
Overcook the rice slightly from what you normally cook. This will make your rice creamy. If using leftover rice, make sure you sprinkle some water and make it soft.
Rice must come to room temperature before you add curd. Never mix hot rice with curds. This will separate them and make it unpleasant to pack them for lunchbox.
Not a rice fan, but I want to try this soothing and cooling curd recipe. Then substitute rice with millet, quinoa, poha, brown rice, couscous, vermicelli, broken wheat, etc. Millet is the new trending way of making curd rice, also known as millet yogurt rice.
If you want to make curd rice during Navratri fasting and if rice is not allowed, use vrat ke chawal to make the recipe.
Add milk, cream, or some sugar to prevent the curd rice from turning sour.
Add more green and red chilies if you like the spicy curd rice.

What to serve with curd rice?

It tastes the best when served with spicy pickles and crispy papad. You can also serve it with Andhra podi (gunpowder).
In restaurants or hotels, South Indian thali meals come with curd rice as one of the side dishes with lemon pickle.
It is served at room temperature, and some like it chilled.

Nutrition