Mango rice

Have you heard of (or) eaten mango rice before? I wouldn't have if not for my neighbor who gave me a cup of mango rice for us to try. My daughter fell in love with it, instantly. To me, it tasted more like lemon rice except that the tanginess of lemon is substituted with raw mangoes - which means, sour & fresh raw mangoes would work really well for this recipe. This recipe is definitely a winner as VJ loved it, who by the way is not a big fan of variety rice.

This recipe works great for picnic/lunch box. Some chips/vathal on the side would make it an awesome combo.

Basic Info

Complexity - Simple

Prep time - 20 - 30 mins

Cooking time - 30 - 45 mins

Serves - 3-4 persons

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup (cooked, I used sona masoori variety) 

Green Mango - 1.5 cups (Grated, I used about 1 medium sized mango)
Green Chillies - 4 nos (slit)
Cashews - 10 nos (broken)
Peanuts - 12-15 nos
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 2 nos
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Whole urad dal - 1 tsp
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Sesame Oil - 1-2 tsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method

Cook rice with 1.5 cups of water (1 : 1.5 proportion of rice and water) and a tsp of ghee for 1-2 whistles. Let it cool and gently fluff it up with a fork without breaking the rice.

Peel the outer layer of mango (I skipped this step as I was hurrying to finish my cooking). Use a shredder and grate it into bite size shreds.

Heat 1-2 tsp of sesame oil in a wide pan. When heated, splutter mustard seeds. Then, add cumin seeds, urad dal, channa dal, peanuts, cashews, red chillies, green chillies until lentils/cashews/peanuts are roasted. To this, add turmeric powder & salt and give it a toss. 

Finally, add shredded mango & grated coconut and mix them well. Saute it for about a min or so (Note: Mangoes need not be cooked, just a saute would be fine).

To this, add the cooked rice and mix gently. Serve raw mango rice with some vathal/chips on the side.

Note

• You can also choose to cut mango into tiny pieces (or) grind it into a paste with coconut & green chillies, depending on how you like it. I haven't tried either of them but no complaints/regrets about shredded mango.
• If you think that the mango is too sour, adjust the spice level (by adding green chillies) for the rice to taste better.
• Instead of cashews/peanuts, you can also use cooked chickpeas (black/white).