Turmeric Rice Recipe (Indian Yellow Rice)
Updated: September 18, 2023, By Swasthi
This Turmeric Rice aka Indian Yellow Rice is a flavor bomb, super easy to make, healthy plus delicious. It makes for a great weeknight dinner, ready under 30 minutes. Serve it with grilled veggies, tandoori chicken, grilled kababs, curry, raita or a stew. No matter how you serve, this unique aromatic Turmeric Rice is going to impress your family and guests for sure!!
Turmeric Rice is made in almost all Asian countries but much differently in each country. Various ingredients like rice, spices, stock, broth, onions and herbs are used depending on the region. This post shows you how to make the simplest yet flavorful turmeric rice in a jiffy.
About Turmeric Rice
This Indian Yellow Rice recipe uses basmati rice, turmeric, warming aromatic spices & herbs. It is a one pot dish where the spices are tempered in fats like butter/ghee/ oil to bring out the aroma. Then rice is simmered with these spices & liquids to perfection.
In no time this will cook up to a super aromatic and delicious dish infused with spices and lots of goodness.
In Indian cuisine, we make a lot of rice varieties like pulao, biryani, bhath & Rice Pudding recipes. Most homes do not make turmeric rice as such but add turmeric to pretty much every rice dish except for the plain steamed rice.
This turmeric rice is the way I make at home when I wish to make the meal more colourful & interesting.
It has a very unique aroma and doesn’t taste or smell like the usual pulao or biryani. I make a lot of variations to this turmeric rice and have listed it down in the recipe notes.
This dish is best prepared in a pot or a dutch oven on a very low flame. But it can also be made in an instant pot or an Indian cooker. I have included the details of the same below.
What is Turmeric?
Turmeric is a warming spice that comes from the rhizomes of turmeric plant. It is widely used in Indian cooking since it imparts a vibrant color & an earthy flavour to the dishes. Apart from that it is also believed to boost immunity & keep the body warm during winters.
So we Indians also consume Turmeric Tea & Turmeric Milk during the harsh winters for better health. This Turmeric Latte is my absolute favorite!
Photo Guide
How to Make Turmeric Rice (Stepwise Photos)
1. Rinse 1 cup aged basmati rice at least thrice. Drain and soak until you need it, for 15 mins. Peel and mince half inch ginger and 2 to 3 garlic cloves.
2. On a medium to low flame, heat a Dutch oven or pot with 1 tablespoon unsalted butter. Stir in the ginger, garlic & saute for 30 seconds until aromatic. Add ¾ teaspoon garam masala or the following whole spices – 1 bay leaf, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (or caraway seeds – shahi jeera), 4 green cardamoms, 4 cloves, 2 inches cinnamon (2 pieces), 1 strand mace (optional) and 1 star anise.
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3. Stir in ¼ to ½ teaspoon black pepper, ½ teaspoon turmeric and ½ teaspoon salt.
4. Drain the water completely and add the rice. On a high flame fry the rice very well for 2 mins stirring occasionally and not frequently.
5. Pour 2 cups stock or water. If you are not using aged rice, you will need only 1½ cups. Stir and taste it. The water must be slightly salty else add a bit more.
6. Bring the water to a rapid boil on a high heat. Later reduce the flame to very low and cook covered until the water is almost soaked up and the rice is cooked through. It should take you about 10 to 11 mins. If you want to make this in the Indian pressure cooker, use 1¾ cups water, cook for 1 whistle on a medium flame.
9. When done there will be no moisture at the bottom of the pan. Use a rice paddle to serve.
Serve turmeric rice with a curry. Here are some recipes you may like to pair with turmeric rice
Red Lentil Curry
Veg kurma
Kadai paneer
Chicken Vindaloo
Chicken Masala
Raita Recipes
Pro Tips
- Rinse rice: Always rinse rice well in lots of water, at least thrice or until the water runs clear. This removes the excess starch that’s on the surface of the rice & won’t make the turmeric rice sticky.
- Soak rice: Soak rice for at least 15 to 30 mins. During the soak, rice grains absorb some moisture and swell up. They expand well while cooking. So you will get fluffy and perfectly cooked long grainy turmeric rice.
- Fry rice: Frying rice in butter not only brings out the aroma of the fragrant rice but also prevents the rice grains from becoming mushy.
- Liquid to rice ratio: To cook turmeric rice in a regular pot use 1:2 rice:water ratio. To cook in instant pot use 1¼ cups . If using Indian cooker with whistle use 1¾ cups. All these are for aged basmati rice and this changes with the kind of rice you use.
- For best flavors, cook the turmeric rice on a low heat.
- Do not substitute butter with oil. You may use ghee (clarified butter)
- Coconut milk or stock: Do not use water to cook this rice. You won’t get the real flavors. Canned coconut milk is too thick for this recipe. You can use coconut milk from carton.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Turmeric Rice Recipe (Indian Yellow Rice)
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 1 cups aged basmati rice (or jasmine rice)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or ghee)
- ½ teaspoon turmeric (prefer organic)
- 1 teaspoon ginger minced or paste
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced or paste
- 1½ to 2 cups stock or water (refer notes)
- ½ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon ground pepper or crushed black pepper
Whole Spices (or ¾ teaspoon garam masala)
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (I use caraway seeds – shahi jeera)
- 4 green cardamoms
- 4 cloves
- 2 inches cinnamon (2 pieces)
- 1 strand mace (optional)
- 1 star anise
To Garnish (optional)
- ¼ cup coriander leaves chopped
- ¼ cup nuts & raisins (optional) (refer notes)
Instructions
How to make Indian Yellow Rice
- Rinse rice well a few times. Soak it for at least 15 mins. Drain the rice and set aside.
- On a medium to low flame, heat butter in a pot. Add ginger garlic and saute for 30 to 60 seconds without burning or browning the garlic.
- Add all the whole spices or garam masala, pepper and turmeric.
- Add drained rice and regulate the flame to high. Fry the rice for about 2 mins stirring occasionally. Avoid stirring often as the rice grains will break.
- Pour the stock or water & add salt. Taste test the water and add more salt as required. Bring the water to a rolling boil.
- Simmer and cover the pot. Cook on a low heat until the rice is fully cooked.
- When done fluff up the turmeric rice with a fork and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with a curry, dal or a raita.
Instant Pot Turmeric Rice
- Press saute button and add butter to the steel insert of the instant pot.
- When the butter melts, add all the whole spices and saute for 30 seconds.
- Saute ginger, garlic, turmeric and pepper for 30 to 60 seconds.
- Then add the drained rice & fry for a minute.
- Pour 1¼ stock or water along with salt. Stir and check salt.
- Press cancel button & secure the instant pot with the lid. Position the steam release handle to sealing.
- Press pressure cook button (manual in older Ips) & set the timer to 5 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, press cancel and let the pressure release naturally 10 mins.
- Fluff up the turmeric rice and garnish with coriander leaves.
Notes
Video
Watch Turmeric Rice Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
This Turmeric Rice recipe was first published in Dec 2019. Updated and republished in February 2023.
About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
I made this rice to go with the butter chicken recipe. I used chicken stock and whole spices (minus the mace because I don’t have it). This is DELICIOUS! If you opt for stock instead of water, add the salt a little at a time since stock often has salt. This rice is aromatic and amazing! I thought it would be too much effort, but it is actually pretty simple and very worth it! I will be making it again for sure.
This flavorful and aromatic rice dish is incredible! Easy to follow instructions with pictures. It is delicious with your Tandoori chicken recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Love to try your recipes 🤩🥘
Restaurant worthy and best of all easy to make. I did not use exact amounts but used all the spices. I imagine it would be better if followed the recipe more precisely
Made today for the first time! Came out delicious! What type of nuts would you recommend adding to this rice and when should I add them?
Just made this to go with your Keema curry recipe. Both are absolutely delicious!
This will be my go-to rice…made exactly like your recipe said. I added mint leaves just as in your note section (the mint plant in my garden acts like an invasive species, so I have more than I can use!)
Thanks for the delicious recipies, chef!
First off, thanks so much for sharing! This recipe came out perfect the first 2X I made it. Today, I tried to make a bigger batch (6 cups) to gift away some and it came out mushy. Pretty please, will you please share how to fix it? I can’t do anything to reverse the broken rice grains, but I was hoping to get it less mushy, and more normal. Right now, I have it in a deep glass tray in the oven with no cover, hoping it will dry out overnight. (The oven is off). Once dry, I was going to try to fluff it with a fork again, it just seems ineffective because the grains are too soft. I used aged Basmati brown rice. At a friend’s house, so I had to estimate the amount of water using both his beaker wet measuring cup that adjusts from the bottom and my coconut water carton! Help!
Hi Dung,
Spread the rice in 2 to 3 trays and refrigerate uncovered. Some of the moisture will be drawn out if left overnight. Later spray oil lightly. Place the cold trays in a 430 F/ 220 C preheated oven and bake for 15 to 16 mins. Hope this helps.
My first time making an Indian dish. We enjoyed the way the kitchen smelled while cooking it. A forever go to for us.
This is hands down my favorite rice recipe. The flavors are incredible. 10/10!
What stock do I use?
Use vegetable stock or meat stock. In the absence of both use water.
I don’t have an instant pot and I make terrible rice on the stove. Do you know if I can transfer this to a rice cooker to finish cooking?
Yes you can. Use the same amount of liquid as you use to cook normal white rice
Namaste Swasthi. Tried this (pressure cooker version) tonight with a dal panchratan. Terrific! My humble thanks as always for you lovely recipes. Regards, Sandy
Namaste Sandy,
That’s great! Happy to know! Thank you so much.
Thank You. This is the best colorful rice
The recipe asks for 6 cloves. Not sure what this means. Is it 6 cloves of garlic or something else?
Hi Michael,
It is the whole spice “clove”. I have shown that in the pictures
Another amazing instapot rice recipe from Swasthi’s Recipes! I feel like this is the perfect rice dish when you want it to have the taste of a biryani, but don’t want to deal with the extra bits of veg or meat. As such, I enjoyed it with a low-key vegetable dish and it was perfection.
Hi, So happy to know you like it. Thank you so much for sharing back!
I’m yet to try this (I’m sure it’s awesome). Anyway, I am lucky to have some saffron. Would it go well with this recipe?
Hi,
The flavor of saffron is very mild and is good to use on white rice. I don’t think it makes much difference in this recipe.
Thanks. Now I just have to find a use for it 🙂
You can leave out the turmeric and use only saffron strands. I have similar recipes using saffron here – Kashmiri Pulao and zarda rice
So delicious! I could not stop eating it. And then after I just started going through all the recipes on the website looking for more tasty things to make lol
Thank you so much Kayla. So glad you like it. Hope you enjoy more recipes.
Absolutely the best recipe I have.
I used coconut milk and caraway seeds. Excellent blend of spices.
Thank you so much Dan for trying and sharing how it turned out.
This recipe was fantastic. So flavorful and easy to make. I have made it twice already this week, once on the stove and once in the instantpot. Will definitely use it for meal preparation. Thank you!
Glad to know Mel
Thank you!
The taste is amazing however the rice became overcooked. I know I followed the recipe accurately so not sure why it’s overcooked. Any advise?
Hi Jameelah
It means the rice you used does not require so much liquid. Please use the same amount of water as you would use to make plain rice.
I have a question about the amount of water to use with the insta pot- do I add the amount called for in the recipe and do an additional 1 3/4 +2 T or just the 1 3/4+2T ? Thanks!
Hi Amy,
Use only 1 3/4 cup + 2tbsps water. This quantity works well for basmati rice.
If using any other kind, You can use the same amount of water as you would to cook plain rice. I have a video below in the recipe card. Hope this helps