Love Indian Pilau rice – but do you find it too difficult to make? Try Our Easy Yellow Rice recipe to serve with your favorite homemade curry. Super Quick and Easy than the store-bought Pilau rice stuff, that you will never ever buy again! Cook it in your Instant Pot or on Stove Top – perfect fluffy pulao rice.
Tastes way better than the Takeaway and its delicious side too!
HOMEMADE YELLOW PILAU RICE
We love Vegetable Pilau rice at home, however, my kids do request on and off for Plain Simple Yellow Pilau rice and Coconut Pilau rice to pair with their favorite Indian Chana Masala.
I call our Pilau rice easy because there is hardly any preparation in the recipe except dicing the onions and rinsing the rice well. The best of all, my family ( particularly the kids ) dig into this homemade Pilau rice without any complaint. They do call this dish “Best Yellow Turmeric Rice ” ever as there are no vegetables 🙂 However, I do sneak in some Onions.
My 8 years old daughter found it so funny when she read the title Easy Yellow Pilau rice. She said – I know why you call it easy because it is super easy and you add some turmeric for color to my favorite pulao rice.
Don’t like Onion, leave it out – but it does add flavor to the rice dish. Check out my Veg Pilau rice that has no onions in the recipe.
Why make this Easy Pilau rice recipe?
- Homemade Rice recipes are actually quick to prepare as there are no frills attached and no preservatives in the ingredients – just like this Easy Cumin Rice, Cilantro Lime Rice, Mushroom Rice, and Fried rice.
- Perfect Non-sticky rice and Separated grains in your Pilau rice. Don’t forget to rinse the basmati rice a couple of times until clear.
- And what I particularly enjoy is that our homemade pilau rice can be made in just one One-Pot – so fewer dishes to wash. Make it in Instant Pot or on your stovetop – either way perfect!
- Even if you decide to take away a Curry, you can make this Indian restaurant-style Pilau rice and 3 ingredients flatbread in a jiffy.
- Side Dish READY IN Under 30 minutes!
- Hate Onions – Skip it in this Yellow rice Pilau. This recipe is forgiving and you just cannot go wrong with it.
- This tastes so much better than your Indian Takeaway or Restaurant!
- Speedy and Easy! Mostly Handsfree too.
- Yellow Rice Can be made VEGAN – use Vegan Butter or any neutral oil.
INGREDIENTS
This simple Pilaf recipe is made with frugal ingredients, easily available in any pantry. It’s called Pilaf, Pilau, Pulao, and even Pulav. For added flavors, I like to use whole spices to give render new dimensions to the rice. Discard them after cooking!
You will need
Long Grain Rice – I I like to use Tilda Extra Long Basmati Rice ( a variety of Long Grain rice ) always stocked in my pantry. You can use Brown Basmati or Brown Rice too – however, the cooking time will vary. DO NOT USE easy cook rice – you will not get the same fluffy texture. Basmati Rice is easily available to buy at your local superstores.
Turmeric lends a vivid Yellow color to the rice. You can use Saffron soaked in milk.
Vegetable Stock or Water – Depending upon the side dish I serve, I use water or stock for the rice.
Butter – My favorite is Ghee also known as Clarified Butter for this recipe. I recommend using a neutral flavor oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil or vegan butter for a vegan choice. The flavor profile of the dish is elevated multifold by using Unsalted Butter or Ghee.
Whole Spices lends the Pilau a rich restaurant-style taste. I like to use BayLeaf, Cinnamon Stick, Cardamom, Cumin seeds, and Cloves. It is optional if you don’t have them handy.
Onion – As this recipe literally uses no other vegetable, I love adding white onion or shallots to the recipe. Do not add red onion as they tend to change the color of the rice a tat bit!
HOW TO MAKE INDIAN PILAU RICE RECIPE
Detailed Ingredients Quantity and Steps are mentioned in the recipe card below. This yellow turmeric pilau rice takes an additional 5 minutes than the regular rice – so this recipe is simply worth trying!
Rice has been a staple dish at home and this is something we cook all the time. To make Perfect Pilau rice, I always like to wash my rice in running water until it is clear. There is enough starch and debris in the rice and it will wade away only by washing.
Rinsing the rice will give you Non-sticky rice and Separated grains. – Do not skip this step!
Heat butter in the Pan and add the whole spices. Saute for a minute or two until fragrant.
Now add diced onions and saute for 2 minutes until it softens.
Add turmeric, salt, rinsed rice and fry for 3-4 minutes until toasty.
Add Boiling Water, Stir and allow the rice to boil in medium heat. When the water has evaporated to the level of rice, place a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to low.
Cook for 6-7 minutes. Once the rice has cooked, turn the heat off. Leave the lid on for a few more minutes and then fluff the rice with a fork. Discard Bay leaf, cardamom and cinnamon stick and serve.
I serve this homemade turmeric rice with Rogan Josh, fuss-free Flatbread. and Pickled Onions!
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
This delicate and aromatic pilau rice is great with all my curry recipes. You can serve this rice in all sort of ways –
It’s delicious with Creamy Aubergine Curry, Vegan Tikka masala, Veg Rogan Josh, Palak Paneer, or even Saag Aloo.
It is also a fabulous accompaniment with my Vegetable Korma, Tofu Korma, or even my Paneer Butter Masala.
Make it in on Stove Top, Instant Pot Pressure Cooker, or even Rice Cooker – they come out perfect every single time!
IF YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE, YOU WILL ALSO LOVE
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Turmeric Indian Pilau rice recipe below
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Basmati Rice
- 1 ¼ – 1½ Cup Water
- 1 Medium White onion diced
- 2 Bay Leaf
- 3-4 Cardamom
- 1 ” Cinnamon stick
- 2 Cloves
- 1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- Salt to taste
- 2 Tsp Oil / Butter
Instructions
- Wash the rice until clear and soak for 15 minutes in cold water. Drain and set aside.
- Heat butter in the Pan and add the whole spices. Saute for a minute or two until fragrant.
- Now add diced onions and saute for 2 minutes until it softens.
- Add turmeric, salt, rinsed rice and fry for 3-4 minutes until toasty.
- Add 1 1/2 Cup Boiling Water, Stir and allow the rice to boil in medium heat. When the water has evaporated to the level of rice, place a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to low.
- Cook for 6-7 minutes. Once the rice has cooked, turn the heat off. Leave the lid on for a few more minutes and then fluff the rice with a fork. Discard Bay leaf, cardamom cinnamon stick & clove and serve.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Wash the rice until clear and soak for 15 minutes in cold water. Drain and set aside.
- Press Saute on Instant Pot. Once it displays HOT, add oil and swirl it around the pot.
- Add whole spices, onion and saute briefly for 1 minute.
- Add rice, 1 1/4 cup water, salt and turmeric to the pot and mix well. Cancel Saute.
- Secure the lid, turn the vent to sealing and Pressure Cook HIGH FOR 5 minutes.
- Natural pressure release for 5 min and Quick pressure release any remaining pressure.
- Fluffy the rice with a fork.Garnish Plain Pilau rice with Coriander leaves if you fancy.
Just tried this easy yellow rice recipe and my family loved it. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I made it last night to go with Greek grilled chicken, and grilled veggies. Absolutely delicious!!!! I will definitely be making this amazing aromatic rice again!!!!
Also, I will be perusing your blog and checking out other recipes :).
Thank you Lori for your wonderful feedback. Your Instant Pot Yellow rice looked stunning…
Such a beautiful color on this pilau rice! It sounds amazing with all those spices and I love how easily the rice comes together. Yum!
The whole spices lend a wonderful aroma to the rice. It’s delicious side along with any curry.
Such an easy recipe to follow! It was delicious, and yielded perfectly separated grains of rice!
How wonderful.. Thank you for trying our recipe. Using the tricks mentioned in the post, you will have fluffy separated rice every single time.
You can’t beat homemade pilau rice. Perfect with a homemade curry.
Absolutely the best! And so quick and easy too.
I love yellow rice. I usually buy them from the restaurant. This rice looks delicious and looks easy to make.
Now you know the recipe to make it – this yellow rice pilau is easy peasy fur sure.