| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 45 min |
| Prep: | 15 min |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves
- 3 cardamom pods, bruised
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken into 3
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds, optional
- 2 1/2 cups basmati rice
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted, for garnish
- 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish
- Special equipment: deep saucepan, 9 1/2-inch diameter, with lid
Instructions
- Cook the onion in the oil, in a deep saucepan with the cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, and nigella seeds, if using, until the onion is slightly browned and soft. Keep the heat medium to low and stir frequently; this should take about 10 minutes.
- Add the rice and move it about in the oily spiced onion until it is slicked and glossy, then pour in the stock and bring the pan to the boil. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over the lowest heat possible for 20 minutes.
- Turn off the heat, take the lid off, cover with a tea towel and clamp the lid back on the saucepan. You can leave the rice to rest like this for at least 10 minutes, and up to about 1 hour. Fork the rice through when you are ready to serve it, scattering the toasted sliced almonds and cilantro on top.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 329 |
| Total Fat | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Carbohydrates | 54 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Sugar | 3 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Cholesterol | 4 mg |
| Sodium | 176 mg |
Reviews
Absolutely mad for this. The only adjustment I had to make was liquid to rice ratio and cooking time based on my rice’s instructions. Divine!
Delicious! Distinctly Indian but not overwhelming. I’m glad I made the whole recipe even just for two – leftovers will be wonderful! Another effortless recipe from Nigella.
This is sooooooooooooo good!!! I could eat this all by itself, although I made it with the Mughlai chicken. Very happy that there were leftovers to take to work for the next couple of days. Yummmmmm!!!!
Ohhh GOODNESS, this is so delicious! I’m from India, so impressing me with rice dishes is certainly a tall order. But this dish is so flavorful, beautiful, and is the perfect foil for absolutely ANY Indian entrée. A go-to Indian menu for me is this pilaf, shrimp curry, and saag paneer (spinach and homemade cheese. So good!
Aromatic, flavorful, simply delicious! and super simple to make. I lost count how many times I made it. I recently made it for my husband’s birthday together with the Paneer and a baked salmon with cumin, coriander and orange peel. Thank you for the recipe!
This pilaf is such a perfect compliment to the Mughlai Chicken, I can’t imagine making one without the other. So easy, too!
I made this with the Chicken recipe and it was a great compliment. My husband who doesn’t normally eat rice, try it and loved it. The recipe makes a ton of rice so you may want to cut it in half if you are making it with the chicken because the serving sizes don’t quite equal for both meals.
I like this recipe for rice pilaf a lot. I’ve made the other recipes from the show, the mughlai chicken and the muttar paneer and was happy with all of them. The only thing I would change would be to add salt and double up on all the spices if you want to eat it alone without the curries, but it is really good and simple to make.