Turmeric and Peppercorn Rice

Turmeric and Peppercorn Rice by DK on Aug 25, 2014

Yellow Rice Recipe | Turmeric and Rice Recipe | Easy Rice Recipes | Peppercorn recipes

We all need quick and simple recipes in our lives. Lack of time, energy, budget or all of them together warrant such recipes that provide incentive to cook and make your own warming meal. I tend to fall back on my stash of easy recipes more during weekdays when I am juggling lot of chores and have less energy to concentrate on cooking. To avoid monotony I jazz up few ingredients to make a "fancy looking" meal that is in fact extremely simple to make.

Like this recipe for example. It looks like something on a restaurant table but in fact, the effort taken is less than 1 minute and cooking takes less than 10 minutes. This along with dal, or a veggies stir fry (at times frozen too) completes dinner under 10-15 minutes that also allows multitasking without compromises. If that's not reason enough, Turmeric provides immense benefits and its combination with peppercorns makes it a potent anti septic and digestive stimulant. I have read that this combo also has cancer fighting properties.

Cook time: Under 15 min
Prep time: Under 15 min
Serves: 4 people
Yields: Makes 4 cups ( abt 4-6 servings)

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups Basmati Rice see Tips
2-1/3 cups Water, see Tips
1/4 tsp ground Turmeric
1 tsp whole Peppercorns, see Tips
2-3 Cardamom pods, crushed lightly to break the skin
1/2 tsp Salt, or to taste
1 tbsp fresh Mint, chopped, or as needed
1 tbsp Coconut oil/ Ghee/ Butter (optional)

Tips

1. Basmati Rice: You can use any other long grained rice instead. If you do not have any on hand, medium grained rice will also work although long grained has a more visual appeal. Taste wise it shouldn't make a difference.

2. Water: You can use Vegetable stock instead. I, at times, tend to use the water in which I boiled some vegetables to make this rice. Provides better flavor along with nutrition without wasting the ones that gets leached into the water while boiling the vegetables.

3. Peppercorns: You can use any color Peppercorns. I use a mix of 4 different colored peppercorns - Pink, White, Black and Green in this recipe but using just one works just great as well.

Method

1. Wash the rice multiple times in cold water until clear. Soak the rice in fresh water for 10-15 minutes. Soaking is optional.
Tip: This not only helps to remove excess starch from the rice preventing it from becoming mushy, but also removes impurities. With high levels of arsenic in rice nowadays, this steps now becomes necessary as well health wise.