Picnic Yogurt(Curd) Rice

Name: Picnic Yogurt(Curd) Rice
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1.5 tbsp Canola Oil; 1/2 tsp Turmeric; 3-4 Curry Leaf; 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Powder, use less if you don't like spicy; 1 tbsp Mustard Seeds; 1 Cup Yogurt, regular plain yogurt(also known as curd in India); 3 Cup Rice, cooked and cooled rice, day old rice work great too; 4 tbsp Cilantro, coriander leaves, roughly chopped; 1/2 tsp Salt, adjust per taste

South Indian Lite Curried Yogurt Rice

Posted By Savita

Indian Healthy Sides

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Easy and lite on stomach, great for digestion, aromatic, tangy, served at room temp and loved by kids and grown-up alike. I don't have enough words in praise for these easy and scrumptious curried yogurt rice.

Yogurt Rice are very popular in South Indian Cuisine, famous by name of Curd Rice. In India, we often refer to plain yogurt as curd, hence Curd Rice! South Indian cuisine offers a lot of variety of recipes with rice and this one is the easiest of all. And healthy too!

The cooling nature of plain yogurt and easy digestive nature of rice makes Curd Rice a perfect food to eat on the go. It is lite on stomach and taste best when consumed at room temperature.

Tell me? What are the basic requirements from a To-Go food?

In my books, I will prefer a to-go food that is -

1) Lite and Easy to digest.
2) Easy to cook, preferably a night before!
3) Easy to pack, less spillage the better.
4) And Don't require re-heating.

Amazingly, curd rice fit perfectly all four requirements, making'em a must-have and preferred choice for Picnic or To-Go menu.

We recently went to Vegas for short trip and I made a lunch-box full of Curd Rice, some wraps and packed fruits to eat on-the-go. We ate some fruits and wraps on the way and rice just not felt hungry to eat. We knew, rice will stay longest of all three! So, we finished everything but rice.

Initially, I felt, why did I waste time in making rice :( They might end up in trash lying in Hotel Fridge since Vishal will refuse to eat'em after a day even though Curd Rice stay good for up-to 2 days. Trash situation never reached since we were in our default roaming mode. You know!! When enjoying in Vegas, no-one remembers to eat on time!!

This lunch box full of Curd Rice really proved very helpful indeed. As usual, we were late in finding us dinner and by the time we planned to eat, almost all eating-joints were either closed or were not offering any food of our choice. We returned back to our hotel room, called in-room service and there kitchen was closed as well! At-last we decided to take Curd Rice out from refrigerator. Let'em come to room temperature and jumped to eat like hungry kings!

Let me sum-up these scrumptious Yogurt Rice for you again:

1) Loaded with Pro-bio-tics from yogurt.
2) Delicious on-its-own with nice & mild curry spice flavors.
3) Gluten Free and can be made Vegan if you replace yogurt with Vegan Almond/Cashew Yogurt.
4) Perfect to pack to-go and ready in no time!
5) Can be made with leftover or day old cooked rice.

Traditional Curd(Yogurt) Rice

These rice are a little different from Traditional South Indian Curd Rice. The thing that differ here is tempering ingredients. For tempering ingredients, traditionally two kinds of lentils (Split Chana Daal and Toor Daal) are soaked in water for 1 hr or so and then added while making tampering oil. I often don't use these lentils due lack of time to pre-soak'em and also Vishal sometimes don't like'em in the food. So feel free to use'em if you want to. But I have to tell you that Curd Rice taste delicious even without them.

We loved every spoon of it after a long tiring day! A full day out of home yet yummy and homemade food to eat. What else does ChefDeHome need?

Enjoy!!

Picnic Yogurt(Curd) Rice

Total Time: 10 mins Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 5 mins

Cuisine: Indian Category: Side Dish Difficulty: Easy

Yields: 3 Cups Serves: 3

Notes: 3 servings of 1 Cup or serve 6 as side with protein. SEE PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients

Spiced Oil Or Tempering
1.5 tbsp Canola Oil
1/2 tsp Turmeric
3-4 Curry Leaf
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Powder (use less if you don't like spicy)
1 tbsp Mustard Seeds
Yogurt Rice
1 Cup Yogurt (regular plain yogurt(also known as curd in India))
3 Cup Rice (cooked and cooled rice, day old rice work great too)
4 tbsp Cilantro (coriander leaves, roughly chopped)
1/2 tsp Salt (adjust per taste)

Directions

1. Spiced Oil - Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seed and let'em sputter (plus turn black). Add curry leaf, turmeric and red pepper and let it perfume oil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and transfer the oil to a wide salad bowl.

Additional Notes:
I also fried 1 red whole pepper, broken into pieces in the oil. This is totally optional, use it if you like spice food.
2. Add yogurt, salt and chopped cilantro into the spiced oil.
3. Add cooked and cooled rice on the top.
4. Mix gently using spatula to coat all rice evenly with spiced oil and yogurt. Taste and adjust salt.
5. Pack cooled rice in lunch boxes and keep refrigerated until ready to leave for picnic. Rice taste best when served at room temperature. So before serving, bring to room temperature.