Lemon Rice recipe | Elumichai Sadam (2024)

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If you are looking for easy rice recipes for lunch, comfort food that takes just 30 minutes and lunch box friendly, kid friendly meals, try this South Indian Lemon Rice Recipe. Refreshing, tangy and lemony!

South Indian Lemon Rice recipe or Elumichai Sadam is a traditional variety rice or Kalavai Sadam made with cooked rice, turmeric, lemon juice and finished with a tempering of mustard seeds, lentils and curry leaves. Pack for school lunch, serve as lunch or dinner with a veggie side.

In a South Indian household, variety rice rules the lunch menu during summers. Easy to put together, delicious and doesn't need an elaborate side dish to serve. It is also lunch box friendly for both kids and adults.

Growing up, this was a staple in my lunch box at school. Making Lemon rice or Elumichai Sadam is not at all time consuming, which is the best part about this recipe. Another bonus is that it doesn’t need any side dish.

Lemon rice contains hing or asafoetida. For a 100% gluten free recipe, omit the ingredient. Lemon Rice is Vegan. If you are allergic to peanuts, feel free to substitute with cashew nuts or skip the ingredient entirely.

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Best Travel Food
How to Make South Indian Lemon Rice recipe
Side Dish for Lemon Rice
Important Tips / Storage Instructions
Other South Indian Variety Rice Recipes
South Indian Lemon Rice recipe | Elumichai Sadam

Elumichai Sadam (as referred to in Tamil), is a popular temple food or prasadam. The recipe contains no onion no garlic.

Elumichai Sadam is made for festivals like Aadi Perukku or Aadi 18 and Navaratri.

It is also made for Seemantham or Valaikapu function (South Indian Baby Shower Ceremony) as part of the 9 rice varieties that is traditionally cooked for the expecting mother.

If you talk about Ayurveda friendly meals or Sattvik food, Lemon rice fits the bill perfectly.

Best Travel Food

South Indian’s remember Lemon Rice or Elumichai Sadam as the most important part of their train journey’s. This is the best travel food as it stays fresh for atleast 48 hours.

Those days when Tamil Brahmin community carried everything from water to food during travel. It is because food was not easily available especially No Onion No Garlic varieties. Recipes like Curd Rice, Podi Idli were hot favorites.

The food packets were eco friendly and no use of plastic was permissible. Ask any Tam Brahm and he / she would share the exact same nostalgia about train journeys.

I still pack this for my husband’s international travels along with Podi Idli, Methi Thepla, some rice crispies and fried chilies (mor milaga).

How to Make South Indian Lemon Rice recipe

Wash and soak 1 & ½ cups of Rice (short grain rice) for 20 minutes.

Drain the water, add 2 cups of water and pressure cook. Once rice is cooked, transfer it to a wide mixing bowl, add salt to taste and let it cool.

Now heat a pan, add sesame oil, mustard seeds, roasted peanuts, urad dal, chana dal, whole dry red chillies, finely chopped green chillies, curry leaves.

Once mustard crackles, add hing or asafoetida and turmeric powder. Mix well and immediately add the tempering to the cooked rice.

Squeeze lemon juice. Mix the rice well and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Side Dish for Lemon Rice

Potato Roast is hands down the best accompaniment for Lemon rice.

Important Tips / Storage Instructions

Short grain rice is most preferred. Kolam, Sona Masuri, Ponni are some of the top choices. You can also make lemon rice using Basmati rice, if you don't stock any short grain rice varieties.

You can also substitute rice with cooked Millets or Quinoa.

For packing lemon rice in kids school lunch box, cook rice in the night using pressure cooker or instant pot. Next morning, it will take no less than 10 minutes to pack.

When packing this for travel, add extra sesame oil while tempering. It will prevent the rice from drying. Do not use toasted sesame oil (used for Asian / Chinese cooking) for this recipe. You can also opt for Sunflower oil or vegetable oil.

If packing for travel, ensure the rice is at room temperature. Packing hot rice will affect shelf life.

Lemon Rice is consumed at room temperature. It is never served warm. I don't reheat leftovers either. If stored in refrigerator, I simply leave the bowl on the counter top until it attains room temperature.

Traditionally, peanuts are added to lemon rice. You can use cashews or feel free to omit nuts, if allergic.

The color of this rice is key - Adding turmeric at the right stage of cooking helps in achieving the color. Turmeric is added to the tempering just before its ready to be mixed with rice.

Other South Indian Variety Rice Recipes

Puliyodharai (Tamarind Rice)

Curd Rice

Ellu Sadam (Sesame Rice)

Coconut Rice (Thengai Sadam)

Raw Mango Rice (Manga Sadam) - Seasonal Rice Variety during Summers

Nellikai Rice (Amla Rice)

Ven Pongal

This post appeared on Masalachilli in December 2017. I have added step wise pictures and fresh content to this post.

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South Indian Lemon Rice recipe | Elumichai Sadam

Vidya Narayan

South Indian Lemon Rice recipe or Elumichai Sadam is a traditional variety rice or Kalavai Sadam made with cooked rice, turmeric, lemon juice and finished with a tempering of mustard seeds, lentils and curry leaves. Popular Temple prasadam, travel food and lunch box friendly. This rice is made during major festivals like Aadi 18 and Navaratri in South India. No Onion No Garlic, Sattvik meals.

5 from 3 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Cooling Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course brunch, Main Course

Cuisine South Indian, Tamil Nadu Recipes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

1 ½ cups Rice Use any short grain - Ponni, Sona Masoori, Kolam
2 cups Water
1 teaspoon Chana Dal (Kadala Paruppu or Bengal Gram Dal)
½ teaspoon Urad Dal or Ulutham Paruppu
½ teaspoon Mustard Seeds, Kadagu or Rai
1 tablespoon Peanuts
3-4 Whole dry red chillies
1-2 Fresh green chillies finely chopped
½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder
3 tablespoon Sesame Oil
2 tablespoon Lemon Juice or Juice of 2 lemons
2 Sprigs of curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida or hing skip this for gluten free recipe
Salt to taste

1 cup is 250ml, 1 tbsp 15ml, 1 tsp 5ml

Instructions

Wash and soak 1 & ½ cups of Rice (short grain rice) for 15-20 minutes. Drain the water, pressure cook using 2 cups water.
Once the rice is cooked, transfer it to a wide bowl and allow to cool completely.
Once cool, prepare tempering by heating sesame oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, peanuts, urad dal, chana dal, dry red chillies, finely chopped green chillies and curry leaves.
When the lentils are toasted (brown) and mustard crackles, add turmeric powder and hing (asafoetida), mix once and switch off the flame.
Add this tempering to the cooked rice along with salt to taste.
Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, mix everything well and let it rest for 5 mins (to absorb flavors) before packing in lunch box and/or serving.

Notes

Top Tips to Make Best Lemon Rice

Any variety of rice can be used for the recipe. Traditionally, aromatic rice or long grain Basmati Rice is not used. I use Sona Masoori, Ponni, Kolam variety of short grain rice. It is available in leading supermarkets and grocery stores.
If planning this for kids school lunch, cooking the rice can be done previous night to save time. You can use Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker to cook the rice.
When packing this for travel, add more sesame oil while tempering. It will prevent the rice from drying. The Sesame oil used for the recipe is also referred to as Gingelly oil. Do not use toasted sesame oil (used for Asian cooking) for this recipe. You can also opt for Sunflower oil or vegetable oil.
If packing for travel, ensure the rice is at room temperature. Packing hot rice will affect shelf life.
Lemon Rice is consumed at room temperature. It is never served warm. I don't reheat leftovers either. If stored in refrigerator, I simply leave the bowl on the counter top until it attains room temperature.
Traditionally peanuts are added to the dish. You can add cashews too or skip nuts entirely, if you are allergic.
The color of Lemon Rice is key - Adding turmeric at the right stage of cooking helps in achieving the color. Turmeric is added to the tempering just before its ready to be mixed with rice.

Additional Notes -

This rice serves 2 - 3 for lunch. You can double the recipe during festivals, functions etc and serve for a crowd. If making this for prasadam, it would serve atleast 6 people (when served in small dhonnais)

Keyword kalavai sadam, Lemon rice, South Indian Rice Variety

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