Carrot Rice Recipe (Indian Style)

Carrot Rice is a delicious, healthy and flavor-packed meal made with basmati rice, fresh carrots, spices and herbs. Make this easy one pot dish for a quick meal and serve it with papad, Yogurt or Raita of your choice. Carrot rice is a staple in my home and is pretty much made every week since it’s very easy. It is kids’ friendly and my whole family loves it. This carrot rice also goes well in an office and school lunch box.

About Carrot Rice

Carrot Rice is simply cooked rice mixed with a tempered and spiced stir fried carrot mixture. Though this can be made to a one pot rice pilaf like this Vegetable Pulao, I prefer the stir fry method as it imparts unique flavors to the dish without overcooking the carrots and herbs.

This is something similar to the Fried rice but here we don’t actually stir fry the rice and no sauce is used. However if you wish to make this a one pot dish like a pilaf using your pressure cooker, then simply follow my second method that I mentioned in the post below.

The steps are same in both the methods but in a different sequence. This makes a huge difference as I said the carrots are not overcooked at all. So the sweet flavor and the crunchy texture of carrots is retained.

I use Indian Garam masala to spice up the carrot rice. Feel free to use curry powder, pav bhaji masala, vangi bath or bisi bele bath masala. I have tried this recipe with all of these.

For a spicier version, add green chilies to the tempering and use more chilli powder as required. To add more protein to your meal, you can simply whisk 3 eggs in a bowl and pour it to the stir fried carrots after they are partially done. Cook until the eggs are soft cooked.

For more Rice Recipes, do check
Corn pulao
Tomato Rice
Dal khichdi
Beetroot Rice

How To Make Carrot Rice (Stepwise Photos)

Method 1 – Prepare Rice

1. Rinse 1 cup rice well a few times and cook it al dente. Do not make the rice mushy. If cooking in a pot pour 2 cups water and add the rinsed & drained rice. Cover and cook on a low heat until fully cooked.

2. If cooking in a pressure cooker directly, pressure cook for 1 whistle. Use the same amount of water as you would cook it regularly. Rice has to be grainy and not mushy here. Cool this completely.

Make Carrot Rice

3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil or butter in a pan. If using cashews, fry them until golden and remove to a plate. Add the whole spices:

• 1 small bay leaf or 1 sprig curry leaves
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 green cardamoms (optional)
• 1 inch cinnamon (optional)
• 2 cloves (optional)

4. When the spices splutter, add 1 small chopped or sliced onion. Saute until they turn lightly golden or brown.

5. Next add 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste or 2 fine chopped garlic cloves. Saute until the garlic smells good for about 60 seconds.

6. Add 1 cup finely chopped carrots or grated carrots. Saute for a while. Optionally you can also add half cup frozen green peas or sweet corn. If using corn from the cob they need to be boiled first until tender and then use here. If using frozen corn or peas, just rinse them and use.

7. Sprinkle little salt as required and cook on a low flame until slightly tender.

Add spice powders

8. Then add

• ¼ to ½ teaspoon red chili powder (reduce for kids)
• ¾ teaspoon garam masala
• 2 tablespoons mint leaves or coriander leaves (finely chopped). Mix  everything well and saute for a minute.

9. Cover the pan and cook on a low flame for 1 to 2 minutes. This helps the veggies to absorb the flavors well. The mixture is slightly moist now, this prevents the rice from becoming dry even when stored in lunch box for few hours.

10. Switch off the stove. Add cooked and cooled rice, sprinkle salt & 1 tablespoon lemon juice. I also use little extra virgin olive oil at this stage.

11. Mix everything well. Taste test and add more salt or lemon juice as needed. Add fried cashews if using.

Carrot rice can also be served with a simple raita or a bowl of plain curd. For the lunch box, I pack with a simple vegetable stir fry. This time it was the baby corn capsicum stir fry.

How to make Carrot Rice in cooker (Method 2)

This method works good with only chopped carrots. You can also use peas and corn. Rinse and soak rice for 20 mins. Follow the same Instructions for tempering till you saute the carrots for 1 to 2 mins.

Add 1 and a ¾ cups water (1¼ cup water for instant pot). Adjust salt as needed. Add soaked and drained rice to the boiling water. Cook until rice is fully done.

If cooking in pressure cooker, cook on a medium heat until you hear 1 whistle. If cooking in an instant pot, pressure cook for 5 mins. When the pressure releases, open the lid .Carrot rice is ready, sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves and squeeze lemon juice.

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Carrot Rice Recipe first published in July 2015. Updated and republished in July 2022.