Curd Rice (Thayir Sadam)

South India’s cooling end to a meal: soft rice mashed, cooled completely, stirred with yogurt and finished with a sizzling tempering of mustard seed, dals, curry leaves and ginger.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Rice section’s regional pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• ½ cup rice
• 1½ cups water
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus more as needed
• 1 to 1½ cups curd (plain yogurt)
• 2 tablespoons grated carrot
• 2 tablespoons grated cucumber
• 1 teaspoon coriander leaves, finely chopped (optional)
• 1 teaspoon oil
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (optional)
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon chana dal (optional)
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon urad dal (optional)
• 1 dried red chili, broken
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 pinch hing (asafoetida)
• ½ teaspoon ginger, minced or crushed
• 1 green chili, slit or chopped (optional)
• 6 to 8 roasted cashews, split (optional)
• Pomegranate seeds, to garnish (optional)

Directions

Key ingredients

Mustard

1. Cook the rinsed rice with the water and ½ teaspoon salt until very soft (the source pressure-cooks it for 3 whistles).
2. Mash it lightly and cool completely.
3. Mix in the curd, then the coriander, carrot and cucumber, and adjust the salt.
4. Temper. Heat the oil and sizzle the mustard and cumin. Add the red chili, chana dal, urad dal and cashews and fry until golden, then the ginger, green chili and curry leaves, and finally the hing.
5. Finish. Pour the tempering over the rice, mix, and garnish with pomegranate.

Notes

Source Adapted from Swasthi Shreekanth, “Curd Rice,” Swasthi’s Recipes. Its ingredient list gives only “salt, as needed”; the ½ teaspoon here is the amount its method adds to the cooking water.

The Rice section’s South Asia page (/rice/south-asia/) covers the history and technique behind this dish.