This little Indian side dish is beautiful. Golden-yellow rice with bright green peas–I love a meal with strong, vibrant colors. And it’s so easy! This is the bed for the Tikka Masala dish I’ll be sharing with y’all next week. I used this Pastor Ryan recipe as a basis once before for my Pasilla-Spiced Pumpkin Basmati recipe, but I really wanted to share the basic, easy version. Easy, that is, if you have a rice cooker.
‘Cause if you don’t, you’re no friend of mine!
Just kidding–you’re all my friends. But I’ll at least pity you and cry salty, salty tears on your behalf. I don’t know what the heck I’d do without my rice cooker.
Don’t know what to eat? Rice with butter! Need something filling and cheap to accompany an expensive piece of fish? Rice! Need to focus all your attention on the meat/protein portion of the meal? Toss the rice in the cooker and fuhgettaboutit!
I hope you’ve taken my words to heart.
Ingredients
(Serves 4)
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
4 TBS butter
1 TBS turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 cups frozen peas (or more, to taste)
Cilantro to garnish, optional
Put the rice, salt, and turmeric in the rice cooker and stir everything around until combined.
See that pile of turmeric?
I didn’t stir mine in, so it clumped together. No harm done since I tossed it vigorously once the rice was cooked, but it would have been easier if I’d stirred it in beforehand. Anyway, add the water and butter, and cook in the rice cooker until done.
Add the frozen peas a few minutes before serving, and toss them in the hot rice.
The heat of the rice will cook them to the perfect temperature.
If desired, garnish with cilantro.
Serve!
Wow. Are we really, um, done here? I don’t think I’ve ever posted an easier recipe, or one with so few instructions. Are you proud, Carrie?
Click here for printer-friendly version: Golden Basmati Rice with Peas
This looks lovely, and perfectly cooked. I do something very similar. I adore the turmeric flavour – it’s very subtle. It’s nice if you add seeds as well, such as cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and black mustard seeds. They also add a lovely flavour. Yum.
Oooh, thanks for the recommendation of adding seeds! Sounds delish.
your cute jenna
What a gorgeous side dish! I am pinning this to try. I don’t know how I ever lived without my rice cooker. It’s the one small appliance that I use over and over again. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
I feel the exact same way about my rice cooker–probably because I grew up with one.
Lovely! The rice looks great. I could not live without my rice cooker.
Have you ever considered adding–hold on to something stable–raisins?
That would be perfect!! Brilliant. Especially if they’re golden raisins, which are SO delicious in Indian food.
yummers
looks good!!
Ooooh, I’m glad you posted this, Jenna! Rice is our favorite side dish (besides eating your Lawry’s version! 🙂 and this will be a colorful addition to many a meal.
Thanks to you and the Fairy Hobmother, I now have a $50 Amazon gift certificate that I had planned to buy a blender with…but am now seriously considering getting a rice cooker instead. I’ve always done it on the stove, but I’ve heard that rice always comes out perfect with a rice cooker. Plus I could use my pan for cooking other things while the rice cooked if I had a cooker! Anyway, this is a great side dish for Indian food. I’ve seen a lot of yellow rice on your blog and always wondered how you made it. Thanks!
I say go for the rice cooker! It means you can take your mind off one of the dishes in the works and focus on the others, and it does turn out perfectly every time. Then again, I’m addicted to rice, so there you have it.
I have to try the addition of butter! I don’t have a rice cooker and still steam my rice in a pot 🙂
Great colours in this! I live on rice, and like to spice mine up a bit to keep others interested so this is awesome. Yum!
I didn’t know I could use my rice cooker like this…I’ve always only added rice and water. You’ve just brought me so much joy!
jealous of your rice cooker! very nice color on that rice.