Curd rice is a south indian comfort dish made with soft cooked white rice, curd (yogurt) and a tempering of spices and curry leaves. In this millets curd rice recipe, I swap out white rice with sama chawal (white barnyard millet) to make it a delicious dish suitable for navratri fasting or if you are looking to inluding millets in your diet.
In north India, samo rice is consumed a lot during Navratri fasting. You can easily find it in indian grocery stores or online. Other names for it are sama ke chawal, moraiyo,or white barnyard millet.
A couple years ago, I shared sama chawal pulao and many of you loved it. This year, if you are fasting for all nine days and want something different than sabudana khichdi, this curd rice is an easy and filling option. It has crunch of fresh vegetables and peanuts in every bite.
The best part? It's not just for fasting days. This millet curd rice tastes very close to traditional yogurt rice, but instead of rice, you are enjoying millets! I've used fasting-friendly ingredients here, but you can always adjust based on what you prefer or what's allowed in your family.
For regular, non-fasting meals, you can add chana dal and urad dal to the tempering. Fried cashews also taste amazing, though I've kept it simple with peanuts. I love how the mix of crunchy peanuts, shredded carrots, cucumber, and a little sweetness from pomegranate keeps the dish fresh and textured so that it never feels gooey or plain.
Instructions
You need cooked and cooled sama chawal to make this curd rice. I am adding detailed instructions for soaking and cooking sama chawal in the recipe card.
- Thin out yogurt with water to thick yet pourable consistency. Whisk to smooth. Add yogurt to cooked sama rice in a large bowl.
- Add shredded carrots, chopped cucumbers & cilantro and pomegranate. Sprinkle salt and black pepper powder.
- Gently mix everything using a soft spatula. Adjust yogurt quantity as needed. The curd rice should not be thick, it should have a soft porridge like consistency. Set aside.
- Make the tadka in a small pan on low heat. Toast peanuts in ghee first. Then add cumin seeds, ginger, green chilies and curry leaves. Crisp up everything.
5. Let the tempering cool down for 1-2 minutes. Pour over the yogurt rice that we mixed earlier.
6. Your sama chawal curd rice is ready. Serve with extra pomegranate or peanuts.
Tips
- Make sure that the yogurt is not at all sour. Curd rice is not meant to be tangy.
- You can increase the quantity of ghee for tempering if desired.
- Keep the consistency flowing. If its to dry, curd rice feels heavy to eat.
- If desired, you can also add black mustard seeds or hing to tempering.
- You can serve any kind of side with curd rice. Sometimes its served with potato fry, on similar lines, I serve it with sweet potato slices.
Curd Rice With Millets
Ingredients
To boil the samo rice
- ¼ cup samo rice (sama ke chawal, moraiyo, white barnyard millet)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ghee
For Mixing Curd Rice
- ¾ cup plain yogurt should not be sour
- ⅓ cup cucumber small dice
- ¼ cup carrots shredded
- ¼ cup pomegranate arils
- 2 tablespoon cilantro leaves chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
Tempering
- 1-2 tablespoon ghee
- ⅓ cup raw peanuts
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon ginger finely chopped
- 2 green chillies finely chopped
- 5-6 fresh curry leaves finely chopped
Instructions
Boil The Samo Rice
- Add samo rice to a bowl and wash it 2-3 times under running water.
- Place washed rice in a bowl and cover in excess water. Let soak for 20 minutes. Drain the water using a fine sieve.
- Add soaked samo rice to a pressure cooker. Add ½ cup +2 tablespoon water along with ghee and salt.
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker and let pressure cook on low medium flame for 2 whistles. Let pressure naturally. Let the rice cool down completely. Fluff only after cooling down else they will become sticky.
- Thin out yogurt with ¼ to ⅓ cup water to thick yet pourable consistency. Whisk to smooth.
- In a bowl, add the cooled samo rice. Pour the yogurt over rice.
- Add shredded carrots, chopped cucumbers & cilantro and pomegranate. Sprinkle salt and black pepper powder.
- Gently mix everything using a soft spatula. Adjust yogurt quantity as needed. The curd rice should not be thick, it should have a soft porridge like consistency. Set aside.
Tempering
- Make the tadka in a small pan on low heat. Toast peanuts in ghee first until lightly browned. Then add cumin seeds, ginger, green chilies and curry leaves. Crisp up everything.
- Let the tempering cool down for 1-2 minutes. Pour over the yogurt rice that we mixed earlier.
- Your sama chawal curd rice is ready. Serve with extra pomegranate or peanuts.
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