Sometimes, you just need a beautiful snack, or a filling side for your excellent dinner. In this way, rice, and specifically beautiful basmati rice, has been filling that function for centuries.
However, it’s also true to say that brands like Mayar foods have taken basmati rice production to the next level, ensuring totally consistent and vibrant rice is provided directly from the lush green fields of Pakistan. Not only does it have a rich taste, but it’s versatile in all kinds of cooking, and is totally organic.
But basmati rice is much more than a simple seasoned side that many home cooks seem to use it solely for. Basmati rice can become a dish in itself with the right additions, providing a beautiful complex carbohydrate light snack in the afternoon, or perhaps, in some cultures, serving as a light way to start the day via a tasty and wholesome breakfast.
In this post, we’ll discuss three dishes and wonderful additions you can apply to take your basmati rice experience to the next level, through and through.
Coconut & Turmeric
With two simple ingredients, you can really get the natural flavour out of your basmati rice and also bring a very light, elegant twist to an afternoon snack you may wish to eat. With a little heated oil in a pan, sauteing chopped white and spring onions and seasoning them, as well as adding a little grated garlic (and optional ginger), you can create a basis to place coconut milk and turmeric. Let the basmati rice cook in the pan for around twenty minutes at middle to low heat, and you will see just how it coats and envelops the rice in a manner that is both refreshing without feeling empowering, and extremely moorish.
Ven Pongal
Ven Pongal is an extremely popular dish in South India, and has basmati rice as one of its main ingredients. It involves pressure cooked basmati rice with moong dal and ginger, only them to be further seasoned with salt. With a little ghee better, and curry eaves, cashew nuts (or nuts of your choosing), chilis and peppers fried and added to the cooked rice, you can provide a gorgeous, spicey, and kicking side to any beautiful curry. Not only does this create a beautiful herbal counterweight to any meaty dish, but it can be served on its own with confidence, too.
Mutter Pulav
Mutter pulav is an incredibly popular and thoroughly simple dish with a beautiful array of hidden notes and spices that enhance the flavour profile tremendously well.
When sauteing cashews until golden, make a mixture of cumin, nutmeg, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and star anise, and then saute those too. You can then use scallions (spring onions) and white onions to add a little more flavor and season accordingly. Some households choose to add mint or other bay leaves, that is totally up to you. When you add peas and even edamame beans to the mixture and pressure cook the rice, you have a beautiful, floral, pungent basmati dish that really brings out the natural nuttiness of the cooked rice.
With this advice, we hope the next time you eat basmati rice you’ll feel more than satisfied.