Jeera rice is a popular fried rice dish having the flavour of cumin that’s easy to make and goes well with any Indian side dish or gravy.
Attend any Indian party and you will most likely find this popular rice dish served with all the other Indian cuisine items. Rice recipes are a favorite of mine.
You may also have a look at some other Indian rice recipes here - Egg Fried Rice, Easy Veg Pulao Recipe, Easy Paneer Pulao, Paneer Tawa Pulao, or Chicken Tikka Pulao.
What is Jeera Rice
A popular fried rice dish served in most Indian banquets, parties, and functions. If you are bored of having regular white rice, this is a very easy, tasty, and healthy alternative.
Jeera is the Indian name for Cumin seeds. It is commonly used in Indian cuisine as a spice for its flavour and aroma. It is also be used in traditional medicine for its therapeutic properties.
Belief in these benefits of Jeera and the splendid taste of the dish has led to the popularity to make Jeera rice.
Jeera rice is often substituted for fried rice. It is much simpler to make since it only has cumin and not any assorted veggies that go in regular fried rice.
Choose Rice Variety
It is possible to make jeera rice out of any rice variety. Conventionally, it is always white rice that is used. To have a more flavourful experience, it is basmati rice that gives the most in flavour and texture.
Basmati is long-grained white rice available easily in any Indian store and I believe nowadays in any other kind of retail store too. It is famed for its long grains, mild aroma and the grains hold very well when you prepare any kind of fried rice, pulao, or biriyani.
Different from Jeera Samba Rice
There is often confusion between the dish (Jeera rice) and particular aromatic grain of rice (Jeera Samba ).
Jeera Rice or Samba rice is often a term also used to describe a type of tiny grained rice. There are many varieties and are also called Jeera Samba rice. These grains are small and very aromatic. They are used to make both savory and sweet dishes in the Indian subcontinental cuisine.
The dish Jeera rice though is mostly made using long-grained basmati rice or sometimes for the sake of convenience with medium-grained white rice.
Ingredients
- Basmati Rice - the better the quality of basmati, better would be its aroma and hold after cooking.
- Ghee - otherwise known as Clarified Butter
- Jeera (Cumin)
- Cardamom
- Cinnamon
- Bay leaf
- Green chilli - I always prefer using green chillies to red dried chillis since it is healthier.
- Water
How to make
When using basmati rice, it is important to soak the rice. Basmati rice should be soaked at least for 30 minutes to an ideal 2 hours. Soaking the rice before cooking has a few benefits -
- It allows the grains to hydrate and become fuller and elongated
- It also decreases the cooking time and thus reduces loss of aromatic properties.
End result is fluffier, elongated, and aromatic rice.
- Wash rice in cold water to get rid of excess starch on the exterior of the grains
- Soak the washed rice in water for at least 30 minutes or an ideal 2 hours if you can plan ahead.
- Drain the soaked rice well in a colander
- Heat ghee and add the spices - cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, green chilli and cumin.
- Sauté for a minute and then add the soaked rice.
- Toss it well for a couple of minutes and add water to submerge it. Add Salt.
- Cover it and let it come to a boil. On low flame let it cook for 10 minutes.
- Check the level of water until none is left.
- Let it rest for 10 minutes and serve it.
Top Tips
Read through the following tips for fluffy and aromatic jeera rice
- Soak rice for a good 2 hours for an optimum result
- Do not over sauté the spices. Spices such as cumin tend to burn easily and spoil the taste of the dish they are used in
- Important to toss the rice well along with the spices so that the ghee coats each grain of rice.
- When you notice there is little water left after cooking the rice for around 10 minutes, switch off and leave it to rest. The residual heat will take care of getting rid of any excess water.
- Since the volume of rice is high and there is some good tossing involved, go for a deep bottom pan or a Dutch oven.
Serve with
Dal fry or dal tadka with jeera rice is usually served with Jeera rice. You can try my Easy Chana Dal or Anda (Egg) dal tadka recipe which will compliment this well.
Jeera rice is often substituted for or accompanies white rice in Indian buffets. Therefore you can have any Indian gravy curry with this like Coconut Chicken Curry, Indian Mutton Curry, Restaurant Style Matar Paneer, No Oil Chicken Curry, or Dhaba Style Egg Curry, Matar paneer
Store
You can put this in an air-tight container and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week.
While consuming it later, just let it rest outside for a while and microwave it. Leaving it outside for at least 30 minutes allows the overall rice to come to room temperature and makes heating easy and uniform.
Other Rice Recipes
📖 Recipe
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 1 cup long-grain basmati rice
- 2-¼ cup Water
- 2 tablespoon Ghee / Clarified butter
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 stick Cinnamon
- 1 green chilli
- 1 black cardamom
- 2 teaspoon Jeera/ Cumin
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash rice under running tap water 2-3 times, until water comes clean.
- Soak rice for 30 minutes.
- In a deep heavy bottom pan or dutch oven heat ghee.
- Add cinnamon, bay leaf, black cardamom, green chilli, and cumin. Saute for a minute until aromatic.
- Drain rice well in a colander. Add drained rice to the pot.
- Toss the rice well in the oil, so that rice gets coated well in ghee.
- Roast rice for 2 minutes, tossing in between to prevent it from browning.
- Add warm water, salt. Let it come to a boil.
- Reduce heat/flame and close the lid. Cook it on low heat for 10-12 minutes.
- At the end of 12 minutes, there would barely be any water left.
- Keep it covered and rest undisturbed for 10 minutes.
- Fluff rice using a fork. Sprinkle chopped coriander.
Video
Notes
- Soak rice for a good 2 hours for an optimal result
- Do not over saute the spices. Spices such as cumin tend to burn easily and spoil the taste of the dish they are used in
- Important to toss the rice well along with the spices so that the ghee coats each grain of rice.
- When you notice there is little water left after cooking the rice for around 10 minutes, switch it off and leave it to rest. The residual heat will take care of getting rid of any excess water.
- Since rice is more and some good tossing is involved, go for a deep bottom pan or a Dutch oven.
MikeyV says
Do you have a recipe for Jeera Rice using already cooked rice?
Subhasmita says
For already cooked rice, the rice needs to be fluffy. Use the same ingredients and same steps. Skip water and add already cooked rice instead of raw rice. Mix and let it cook for a couple minute for the flavour to get infused.