Craving some delicious, flavor-packed vegan side dish? Look no further than this easy turmeric rice recipe! Ready in just 30 minutes and made entirely with wholesome plant based ingredients – you won't miss the oil at all. For extra yumminess (and a slightly longer cooking time) switch out white rice for brown; trust me it's worth it. It is naturally gluten-free!
Enjoy your fragrant yellow bowlful piping hot alongside falafel or curry - guaranteed to elevate any meal!
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Ingredients
A quick list of the simple ingredients you will need to make this yellow rice recipe.
You can find the ingredients with quantities and the recipe to print out on the recipe card below.
- Rice (brown basmati rice or white basmati rice)
- Garlic
- Onion
- Celery
- Bay Leaves
- Ginger
- Cumin
- Turmeric
- Vegetable Broth
- Apple Cider Vinegar
Instructions
Start by finely dicing the onion and garlic cloves. Also peel and chop the fresh ginger.
Additionally, chop half a stalk of celery finely. Sauté the vegetables in a pot with a little water until the onions are translucent or slightly brown on medium-high heat.
Add the uncooked rice, bay leaf, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and vegetable broth.
Let everything simmer over low heat until the rice is soft, and the vegetable stock has absorbed. You may need to add a little more vegetable stock.
If you need to add more veggie broth, add only ¼ cup to ½ cup at a time until the rice is soft. Finally, add the apple cider vinegar and stir it again. It takes around 40 minutes.
Slow Cooker
You can also prepare this golden rice in a slow cooker. Just cook the rice with around 3.5 -4 cups vegetable broth on high for 2-2.5 hours. Check after 2 hours if the rice is al dente.
Instant Pot
Cook your yellow basmati rice in a pressure cooker. Just cook it on high pressure for about 15 minutes. Pressure release naturally.
Hint: You can easily peel the ginger with a small spoon. If you got only cumin seeds, grind them into powder.
Make this Indian yellow rice recipe, check out my vegan beetroot risotto, my vegan asparagus risotto, vegan jambalaya and my other vegan rice recipes.
Substitutions
- Rice: Use a long-grain rice, I prefer a brown rice. Instead of rice, you can also use other grains such as wheat kernels, freekeh, spelt, bulgur. If you want a low-carb version, I recommend using quinoa. Depending on the situation, you may have to adjust the amount of liquid. You can also make cauliflower rice and season like this garlic turmeric rice.
- Celery: The celery gives it a great salty note. You can also use celeriac here. If you don't want to use celery, you can leave it out. You can use celery powder instead, or just omit it.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: If you don't have apple cider vinegar at home, you can use regular household vinegar or lemon juice. Lime Juice will work as well.
- Turmeric Powder: I usually use powder, because it is hard to find fresh turmeric here. But you can also use fresh turmeric. I would use 2 tablespoons minced fresh turmeric.
- Onion: Of course, you can use onion powder instead of fresh onions.
Variations
- Coconut Turmeric Rice: Add some coconut milk to your Indian turmeric rice for some extra creaminess.
- Spicy: You love spicy food? Add some chili peppers or red chili flakes.
Serving Options
This vibrant turmeric rice goes well with curries and falafel bowls.
Dishes you can serve the rice with:
Storage
- How to refrigerate? You can store leftover turmeric rice in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days. Simply warm up in a pot over medium heat.
- How to freeze? Freeze the rice in portions, the turmeric rice will last there for about 1 month. To rewarm, let thaw the night before in the refrigerator and then warm in the pot as described above.
Tips
For a light rice, I recommend you soak or rinse the rice beforehand. This will flush out as much starch as possible. You don't have to stir the rice in between, just make sure there is enough liquid in it so that nothing burns.
You can also add a little more turmeric powder if you think the rice is not yellow enough. The rice doesn't look yellow at first, but it turns more yellow as it cooks.
FAQ
Turmeric is a spice that you can often find as a powder in the spice department. Turmeric looks like ginger, the inside is just orange instead of light yellow / white. The active ingredient curcumin is also often used as a home remedy. Turmeric is considered to be anti-inflammatory.
It is said to relieve pain, lighten mood and improve digestion, and reduce cancer risk. If you want to learn more about turmeric, I recommend nutritionfacts.org.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Turmeric Rice (healthy)
Ingredients
- 1½ cups 275 grams brown rice
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 yellow onion finely diced
- 1 bay leaf
- thumb thick piece fresh Ginger chopped
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
- ½ stalk celery finely chopped (for a salty taste)
- 2 cups 500 ml vegetable broth
- 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
- Sea Salt to taste
Instructions
- Start by finely dicing the onion and garlic cloves. Also chop the fresh ginger.
- You can easily peel the ginger with a small spoon.
- Also chop half a stalk of celery. Fry the vegetables in a saucepan with a little water until the onions are translucent or slightly brown.
- Add the rice, bay leaf, cumin powder, turmeric powder, and vegetable broth.
- Let everything simmer over medium heat until the rice is soft and the vegetable stock has absorbed. You may need to add a little more vegetable stock.
- Add only ¼ cup to ½ cup at a time until the rice is soft. Finally, add the apple cider vinegar and stir it again.
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