Pudina rice (Mint rice)

Pudina rice is a one pot delicious, healthy and fragrant Indian dish made with rice, mint leaves and spices. ‘Pudina’ is a Hindi word for ‘mint leaves’, which is a fragrant herb widely used in Indian cuisine to make chutney, curry, biryani, pulao & a lot of rice dishes. Make super aromatic and healthy pudina rice in 2 ways following my easy recipes in this post.

This South Indian style mint rice is always a winner for its simplicity, taste and refreshing aroma. Both these recipes are a great way to use up any fresh mint leaves left behind in your refrigerator.

Since mint leaves are the star in this pudina rice recipe, I have not used any other veggies. But if you prefer, you can add some mixed vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots and beans. Do note the flavour changes with the addition of veggies.

You can serve this with any curry, plain yogurt, raita or a simple curry. Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries go well. Pudina rice can also be taken to school or work. Some vegetable salad or kachumber goes well too.

Here are some delicious dishes that go well with this mint rice.
Bagara baingan
Mixed vegetable kurma
South Indian chicken kurma
Chicken curry

Pudina rice can be made in 2 ways. The first method is a one pot recipe where ground mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chilies and onions are sautéed and then the rice is cooked with it.

The second method is similar to the South Indian lemon rice and we call this as lemon pudina rice. I can’t tell you how delicious, unique & amazing this tastes! With this method you basically cook the plain rice and then temper it similar to the lemon rice but you have the mint leaves added to the tadka.

Variations you can make

These variations are for the first recipe (one pot)

1. I have used coconut, you can replace it with onions too. Both yield good pudina rice, with different flavors.
2. You can even add vegetables like potato, peas, mushroom or baby corn too while frying the paste to perk up the nutrition.
3. You can add a handful of cashew nuts to the pot while frying the spices.

Recipe – 1 Preparation

1. Add ginger garlic, pudina, green chilies, coriander leaves, onions or coconut to a blender jar and make a fine paste, as fine as possible.

2. Pour oil to a pressure pan or cooker and heat it. Saute the dry spices till they begin to sizzle. you can even add nuts at this stage or fry and keep them aside for garnishing.

3. Add the paste and fry for 2 to 4 minutes, depending on the kind of your utensil. This is done to bring out the flavor of the mixture. Do not burn, stir well, it sticks too quickly. If using mix veggies, you can add them now and saute for 2 mins.

How to make pudina rice

4. Pour water and stir in the salt. bring it to a boil.

5. Add washed and soaked rice. Stir and cook until the water almost evaporates.

6. Close the lid when there is very little water left. Put on the flame to low.Cook for just 5 minutes and switch off. do not let the cooker whistle if using basmathi rice. if using regular rice, allow it to whistle once.

7. Lastly open the lid when the pressure goes down. A layer of mint and coconut is visible on top, you can sprinkle lemon juice and fluff up the rice gently.

Serve with onion raita or potato kurma or egg masala curry.

Pro tips

• Salt & vinegar can be sprinkled over the mint leaves and set aside for 10 minutes before cleaning. This helps to get rid of the pesticide residue on the leaves.
• To skip blending the leaves in a blender, try to mince them as finely as possible.

Lemon Pudina rice – Recipe 2

Lemon pudina rice recipe – one of the most easiest and flavorful rice that can be made for lunch box or for a quick meal. This is one of our favorites and preferred over the regular lemon rice. It can be served without any side. But to add little more nutrition to the meal, we accompany it with raita Raita or a quick mixed vegetable salad. Here are the ingredients to make

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice uncooked
• oil as needed
• 1 cup pudina leaves or mint leaves (tightly packed)
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• ½ tsp mustard
• ¾ tbsp chana dal (optional)
• ½ to ¾ tbsp urad dal (optional)
• 2 tbsp peanuts or cashews
• turmeric powder little
• lemon juice as needed(as much as we use for lemon rice)
• 1 broken red chili
• 2 green chilies (skip for kids or deseed use 1)
• olive oil (optional)
• ½ to ¾ tsp grated ginger (optional)

Instructions

1. Firstly pluck mint leaves, add them to a large pot filled with water. Rinse them well in more water. Drain them in a colander.
2. Soak rice for at least 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Cook it and set aside to cool completely. You can cook rice in electric cooker, pressure cooker or pot. The rice must be grainy and not mushy.
4. While the rice cooks, add the mint leaves to a small blender jar. Blend it little coarsely without adding water. Set this aside.
5. To make pudina rice, heat oil in a pan. Next add peanuts, chana dal and urad dal when they are lightly golden, add mustard and red chili. Lower the heat. When mustard splutters, add curry leaves, ginger, green chilies.
6. Ginger may get burnt, be quick. Add the pudina. Saute for 1 minute. Switch off the stove.
7. Add turmeric to the pan and add this to the cooled rice. Lastly sprinkle salt and squeeze off lemon all over the rice. Mix well. I also like to add some extra virgin olive oil before the rice is mixed.
8. lemon mint rice is ready.

More Rice recipes
Pulao recipe
Veg biryani
Green peas pulao
Tawa pulao
Potato pulao

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