Lemon rice - A South Indian delight

Lemon rice is one of the easiest Indian dish and they are so subtle in flavor but exotic in taste. Every working parent will fix this as a lunch box menu at least on one day of the week. They are so easy to fix and goes great even with a simple store-bought chips. I am a great addict to it since childhood. The roasted peanuts and urad dhal makes every bite crunchy and lovely curry leaves infuses a earthly flavor in every mouth. The addition of asafoetida, ginger and green chillies leaves me with the burst of lovely taste in my mouth. Being greatly influenced by Giada, an Italian cook ,I ended up adding lemon zest to this rice. Trust me, I felt nice about its addition and the taste was awesome. Unless it is really good, S would never go for couple of more serving for a vegetarian dish. S enjoyed few more serving which is so unusual of him and I was so excited about that.

I would like to have my lemon rice with potato curry or egg curry (recipe here) or chicken dry fry. Here is the recipe for the divine rice dish.

Ingredients
2 cups cooked rice - Cold
2 tsp lemon zest
2 lemon (yellow) - juice
1" ginger - chopped
3 green chillies - slit
1-2 tsp asafoetida
10-12 curry leaves
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbs urad dhal
1/2 tbs peanuts
1/4 tbs cashewnuts (optional)
3 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tbs oil

Method
Heat oil in a kadai. Once they get heated up, throw in the mustard and let it splutter. Then add the urad dhal, ginger,asafoetida, curry leaves, green chillies and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the peanuts and cashewnuts and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Add the turmeric powder, salt and lemon zest and give a complete mix. Cook till the raw smell disappears. Turn the flame off and squeeze the lemons. Check for salt. Add the cold rice and mix well. Serve warm with chips/ any vegetable fry/ egg curry /dry chicken curry.

This is my entry for Sudeshna and Sunita's event Think Spice: Think Turmeric




Update: 03.20.2012
Lemon quinoa - Warm quinoa salad with South Indian spices