CURD RICE RECIPE -SOUTH INDIAN STYLE

Curd Rice is an easy rice recipe made with cooked rice, curd or unsweetened yoghurt followed by a tadka or tempering. This South Indian style Rice recipe is quick to make and has an honour of being a part of Thali’s (A set meal where Indian foods are served together).

Curd Rice is also known as Bagala bath, Thayir Sadam in Different Indian languages. In addition to that, they are also served in temples as prasad and known by a name Daddojanam.

I have grown up eating this comfort food as a kid and it never makes me feel boring.

Likewise, those were the days, I remember having this curd rice without any complaints even when temperings or tadka’s aren’t done.

Lunch boxes filled with curd rice has been a part of most of my school-going childhood days.

In addition to that, most of our suhoor, during Ramadan is done with curd rice.

But, I like the crunchiness of tadka’s from dals and the bit of sweetness from fruits and a little sneak peek of savoury, biteable chillies and sour. So, I mostly try to add them even if I’m running late. yeah, I’m not going to launch a rocket in 2 minutes right? <sigh.>

And I guarantee you, this is the best recipe for kids to make themselves without any assistance. Bonus, they are easy on the stomach.

Ah..! there is also a drink and dessert that’s made often during Ramadan and Do you know why? Because they are effortless to make and have fruit goodness in it.

Benefits of curd rice

1. Best summer food and helps in beating heat and sunstroke.
2. Curd is a good source of fats, calcium, proteins.
3. They are quick to prepare, easy on the stomach, and the best part, they are even great to pack in lunchboxes.

Tips for packing in Lunch boxes

Ever wondered why your curd rice is too sour; if you have been making them already?

Curd starts turning sour when exposed outside for long hours!

So what can you do when packing it for Lunchboxes or trip?

Here are a few tips that will help you in packing the best curd rice for your lunchboxes, that you will never stop loving.

1. Use curds or yoghurts that aren’t sour while making curd rice.
2. Tempering helps you in lowering the chances of your sour curd.
3. Avoid adding hot tempering to the curd rice mix.
4. Don’t add Hot rice with cold as this can make whey to separate when sitting for long hours in lunchboxes. Also, you are killing the benefits of curd rice by doing so.

Curd Rice Recipe for Kids and Babies

We started feeding our baby plain rice after six months and curd rice after nine months. Though, we fed her almost regularly with curd rice only after her one year, however, Each baby is different and always consult your doctor before starting any food new to the baby.

If you are feeding your baby curd rice, just mash hot rice. Then allow it to come to normal temperature and mix curd with it before feeding them. Always try to avoid tadka’s or tempering and any other fruits or textured substances in curd rice while feeding your baby, they might cause choking.

Curd is mucus-forming food. So, it is better to avoid them when your child is having a cold and don’t feed your babies any curd based dish during the night.

If you are planning to serve this curd rice to your kids, you can avoid adding chopped chillies.

Key Tricks and tips to make best yogurt rice | Curd Rice

1. The main fundamental trick lies in well-mashed rice. Rice can be well mashed only when it is fresh and hot. It becomes a little difficult to mash rice when it’s not hot.

2. Sometimes you may notice your rice turning hard and tight when packed; you can avoid this by adding a thin curd in a consistency somewhere between buttermilk and curd. This method can be particularly useful if you aren’t adding milk to your curd rice. Alternatively, You can use milk to avoid hardening rice, when packed.

3. Always use fresh curds while mixing; this will ensure the rice mix to stay enjoyable when kept for long hours.

4. Regarding grains for making rice, you can use both long grains and short-grain rice for making this recipe. It’s not much of a problem as you are going to mash the rice at the end.

5. For instance, you can also serve the rice without mashing. It’s based on one’s preferences. You can also use leftover rice to prepare curd rice, but it won’t be in a mashed state.

6. When you are preparing Yoghurt rice for travel, I would recommend you to make fresh rice for mixing with curd.

7. If you are planning to serve your dish in a Restaurant-style, prepare the curd rice and refrigerate before serving.

Best served

Yoghurt rice or Curd rice taste the best with Pickles and pappads (Fryums). Mango pickles and curd rice are a match made in heaven, and they are my all-time favourite.

Moreover, you can also serve them with sun-dried Whey chilli, or Onions and Cucumber Slices. Also, Sundried mangoes that are salt-cured also makes the best combo.

If you are looking for any dry and fried items to go with this dish, Chicken fry and potato fry also makes the best combinations.

Types of curd Rice (Alterations and variations)

1. Add milk to the curd rice; this helps in stabilising the sourness of the curd. You can avoid milk and make this dish by adding curd alone. That’s how we used to have most of the time.
2. If you are a vegan, you can use any plant-based yoghurts and follow the rest of the steps for making this yoghurt rice recipe.
3. you can substitute Yoghurts for curd. But using a sweetened and flavoured yoghurt will turn your dish to be sweetened and flavoured one. However, there is nothing wrong in that; you won’t get the originality of south Indian curd rice recipe.
4. To give extra texture to your curd rice, consider adding grated carrots and cucumbers. On the other hand, this will also engage your kids and toddlers to have interest in their foods.
5. Addition of Grapes and Pomegranate arils gives the curd rice an extra juicy and sweet texture.
6. Similarly, you can also skip adding grated carrots, cucumbers or pomegranate arils, grapes and keep it simple only with the tadka (tempering).

How to make the best Curd rice | yoghurt rice recipe

1. Wash, drain and cook the rice in a pressure cooker or an open cook. But make sure, your rice is a bit extra soft after cooking if you want the mushy texture of curd rice. You can also use leftover rice.

2. Cut the ginger into julienne and chop chillies.

3. Gather all the ingredients for tadka and garnishing like grated carrots, cucumbers; Pomegranate arils. I have used only pomegranate arils in this recipe, and We love to add grapes, and I skipped it, as that was not in season when I created this recipe.

4. Heat oil in a frying pan or Kadai and add mustard seeds, followed by White Lentil, Cumin, Yellow split peas. Allow them to become slightly golden brown.

5. Then, add Asafoetida, Ginger Julienned, Dried Red chillies, and Curry Leaves and Fry the Curry Leaves till they are crisp.

6. In the meanwhile, Take cooked rice in a bowl and mash it and break lumps if any. Make sure; Rice is in room temperature then add salt to taste, curd, milk (optional) and mix well.

7. Add Chopped chilly and Fresh coriander’s to it.

8. Once the tempering has come down to room temperature, add to the curd, rice mixture.

9. Finally, serve your curd rice by garnishing with Pomegranate arils or chill in the refrigerator before serving.

10. Enjoy your curd rice with mango pickle, poppadoms or any fries.