Peanut rice recipe – Simple, aromatic and delicious rice made in South Indian style with roasted and ground peanuts. This is one of the rice recipes I make for the lunch box when ever I am short of time in the mornings. I usually make a vegetable salad or slice some carrots and cucumbers to go with this peanut rice.

This is one of my favorite recipes for kids school box. This can also be served to toddlers. I have used basmati rice here since we prefer this for the lunch box. However it can also be made with regular non sticky rice like sona masuri or ponni.

To make peanut rice, cooked and cooled rice is required. While the rice cooks, I roast the peanuts and other ingredients. Cool them and powder. You can also prepare the spice powder on the previous night and just mix it with the freshly cooked rice in the morning which saves a lot of time.

Curry leaves, chana dal and urad dal are the main ingredients that add a good aroma to the peanut rice, so do not skip them.

How to make peanut rice

1. Dry roast dals until golden on a medium to low heat and set aside. I usually roast the chana dal and urad dal in bulk for my breakfast chutney. So I just used them up.

2. Dry roast peanuts well along with garlic until half roasted. Garlic is roasted here to remove the pungent smell.

3. Then add curry leaves and red chilies. Roast until the peanuts emit a nice good aroma. Curry leaves and red chilies should become crisp.

4. Add cumin, coconut or sesame seeds at this stage and switch off the stove.

5. Cool them completely and add to a blender or mini blender jar. You can also set aside some peanuts for garnish.

6. Powder coarse or finely to suit your taste. We like the coarse texture so I powdered the chana dal and urad dal first to a fine powder. Then coarsely ground the rest of the ingredients.

7. Cook and cool the rice as you would do regularly. There are 2 ways you can make the peanut rice.

First method: Heat oil in a kadai and temper with half tsp mustard seeds, 1 broken red chili, curry leaves and then hing. Later add the powder along with salt and switch off the stove. Mix the cooked and cooled rice.

Second method: This is the method I most often follow for the Lunch box. Cool the cooked rice completely. Add the peanut powder, salt and oil. I use either cold pressed organic sesame, peanut or olive oil.