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Coconut Rice

Ready in 20 mins

Recipe by Mamtha Sunil Kumar 

Coconut Rice is a dish prepared by cooking white rice and adding coconut milk or coconut flakes. As both the coconut and the rice-plant are indigenous in places all-around the world, coconut rice too is found in many cultures throughout the world (spanning across the equator from the caribbean to southeast-Asia). This particular recipe is a South Indian recipe where fried coconut and cashew nuts are added to boiled rice and garnished with ghee and coriander leaves. This is very easy to make dish makes for an excellent breakfast or an evening snack.

Preparation Time

2 Minutes

Cooking Time

18 Minutes

Ingredients for Coconut Rice

If you are not familiar with any ingredients, please check our International Cooking Terms page.
If you want to know more about Indian ingredients, check our Indian Spices and our Indian Pulses, Rice and Seeds pages.

Currently displaying quantities in US Imperial Measurements

To serve 4:

9 oz long grain rice
1½ pints water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 oz fresh shredded coconut
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter or drawn butter)
1 oz cashew nuts
½ oz broken dry chilies
1 oz black gram dhal
5 curry leaves
1 oz ground coriander leaves
  salt

How to Cook Coconut Rice

  1. Cook the rice as for Boiled Rice. Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to a small frying pan and fry the shredded coconut evenly to a golden colour over a slow heat
  2. In a small pan, heat the ghee and fry the cashew nuts until golden. Remove, then fry the broken pieces of dry chilies, black gram dhal, and curry leaves well.
  3. Add the fried coconut and cashew nuts to the rice and mix well. Season to taste and add the fried dry chilies, black gram dhal, curry leaves and coriander leaves. Mix well and serve hot.
MAMTHA SUNIL KUMAR'S HOT TIP:
Washing the rice and soaking if for an hour in cold water before cooking will remove all the excess starch and will give a lighter, fluffier rice.