Homemade South Indian-Style Lemon Rice
Jun 25, 2019, Updated Aug 12, 2024
This vegan friendly South Indian-style Lemon Rice is flavored with crunchy peanuts, curry leaves and fresh lemon juice. It's tangy, fresh and feels like sunshine in a bowl!
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This South Indian-style lemon rice has fragrant basmati rice infused with fresh lemon juice, mustard seeds, curry leaves, warm spices, and crunchy peanuts. Quick to prepare in under 30 minutes, this vibrant yellow rice can be enjoyed as a meal by itself or served as a tangy side with any meal. Vegan friendly.
This Indian lemon rice is one of those dishes which I always end up making when I want to eat something simple, refreshing and tangy. As an Indian, we eat rice every week and while plain rice is great with dal, we also make many different variations of rice and flavor it with spices (like with saffron in saffron rice and with cumin seeds in jeera rice), vegetables and much more.
Other than lemon rice, tomato rice is another favorite of mine. It’s flavored with similar spices an easy quick meal. This lemon rice recipe is quite popular in South India. It has all the warm spices like curry leaves, mustard seeds and the addition of peanuts adds a nice crunch to it. It is also great to pack in lunchboxes. I am all up for Indian dishes which can be easily and quickly eaten for lunch and this lemon rice ticks all those boxes.
Leftover rice + 15 minutes = Tangy Lemon Rice!
We eat a lot of rice at our home and so naturally I have leftover rice in the fridge often. There are so many great ways to use leftover rice but one of my favorite leftover rice makeovers is this fresh and bright south Indian style lemon rice. It needs a few basic ingredients for tempering like mustard seeds, curry leaves, some peanuts for the crunch and fresh lemon juice to bring it all together. It’s like sunshine in a bowl! Did I mention it’s also vegan?
With leftover rice, you can make this in 15 minutes! Although, I must mention that you don’t always need leftover rice to make this vibrant lemon rice. Sometimes, I just cook rice first and then make lemon rice from it because when the cravings hit, they need to be satisfied immediately, leftover rice or not! I typically use basmati rice to make this dish, but short grain rice will also work. Just make sure to use fresh lemon juice, no bottled up lemon juice for this recipe please.
We love eating this with achaar (Indian pickle) and papadum. So good! We are in the middle of summer right now and a bowl of lemon rice on a hot day makes the perfect lunch. I suggest you try this before the bright days are over!
Let’s Make South-Indian Style Lemon Rice
For this recipe, I cooked rice first. I used 1 cup of uncooked basmati rice, but you can also start this recipe with 3 to 3&1/2 cups of leftover cooked rice. In that case, skip the steps of cooking the rice and move straight to the tempering part.
- Rinse 1 cup of basmati rice until water turns clear. Then transfer it to a stove-top pressure cooker with 1& ½ cups water. Cook on high heat for 2 to 3 whistles. You can also cook in your Instant pot, to cook in your Instant Pot, press the pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes followed by a natural pressure release. Meanwhile soak ½ teaspoon each of urad dal and chana dal in water for 10 to 15 minutes as the rice cooks. Then drain the water from the dals and set aside. This helps in keeping the lentils soft after they have been added to the tadka. Once the rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork and transfer it to a large bowl and let it cool down. Then add the salt (around ½ teaspoon or to taste) and 2 to 2 & ½ tablespoons of lemon juice. Mix everything and set aside.
- For the tadka, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a small pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add 2 tablespoons of raw peanuts to the pan. Cook the peanuts until they are roasted and turn light golden brown in color. Be careful not to burn them. Remove peanuts on a plate lined with paper towel. To the same pan, now add ½ teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them pop.
- Add the soaked & drained dal to the pan. Sauté until they turn light golden brown in color. Then add a handful of curry leaves (12 to 14 in number) 1 green chili (sliced). You can add more if you prefer extra spice levels. Sauté for few seconds and then add ¼ teaspoon turmeric, generous pinch of hing and mix.
- Remove pan from heat and transfer the prepared tadka to the bowl of rice along with the roasted peanuts. Mix all the seasoning well with the rice using a spoon. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste at this point. Enjoy this flavorful lemon rice with a side of mango pickle or my tomato chutney!
Manali’s Tips
- You can add cashews in your tempering if you want. Even ginger would be good here, though I did not add it.
- I like adding chana and urad dal for the crunch in my lemon rice. Make sure you soak the dals for 10 to 15 minutes in water before using them in the recipe. This way they stay soft.
- To ensure that this recipe is gluten free, use gluten free hing (asafoetida).
25-Minute Lemon Rice Recipe (South Indian-Style)
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice 200 grams, I used basmati rice
- 1 & ½ cups water 12 oz
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2- 2 &½ tablespoons lemon juice or to taste
- ½ teaspoon urad dal (dhuli) soaked for 10 minutes
- ½ teaspoon chana dal soaked for 10 minutes
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoons peanuts raw
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 12-14 curry leaves
- 1 green chili sliced, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- generous pinch hing also known as asafoetida
Instructions
- Rinse rice until water turns clear. Then transfer to a pressure cooker with 1 & 1/2 cups water. Cook on high heat for 2 to 3 whistles. You can also cook in your Instant pot, high pressure for 5 minutes with natural pressure release.
- Meanwhile soak urad dal and chana dal in water for 10 to 15 minutes as the rice cooks. Then drain the water from the dals and set aside.
- Once the rice is cooked, fluff it with a fork and transfer to a large bowl and let it cool down. Then add the salt and the lemon juice and mix well until combined and set it aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the peanuts to the pan. Cook the peanuts until roasted and they turn light golden brown. Don’t burn them. Remove peanuts on a plate lined with paper towel.
- To the same pan, now add mustard seeds and let them pop. Add the soaked & drained dal to the pan. Sauté until they turn light golden brown.
- Add the curry leaves and chili. Sauté for few seconds. Then add the turmeric, hing and mix. Remove pan from heat.
- Transfer tempering to rice along with the roasted peanuts. Mix all the seasoning well with the rice. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste at this point. Serve lemon rice with a side of Indian pickle (achaar).
Notes
- You can also make this lemon rice using 3-4 cups of cooked rice. So this is a great way to use leftover rice. Follow the same recipe as it is except cooking the rice part.
- You can also add cashews to this lemon rice for that extra crunch and taste.
- To make it gluten-free skip the hing (asafoetida) or use gluten-free hing.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hubby loved this. I used Trader Joe organic basmati and served with your chana dal. Thank you!
awesome!
WOAH. I just made this last night, stuck to the recipe 100%, and it’s the best rice I’ve ever had. Don’t skip any part of it! It’s incredible!
good to know Kendra 🙂
Hi Manali,
I love your website! I have a question about lemon rice and the use of urad and channa dals. What is the purpose of adding them to the dish? Texture?
Thanks so much for helping me!
chana and urad dal are commonly added to tadka (tempering) in South Indian dishes…they give nice texture. You may skip them!
My all time favorite. Healthy and delicious. Happy New Year Manali 🙂
Happy New Year Manali!! I hope that you and your family will have many blessings in the year to come. This rice look amazing. Pinning to try soon.