This easy and pretty carrot rice comes together quickly for a weeknight meal, and yet it's special enough for an occasion. Pair it with our coconut curry for a healthy and delicious meal that's also gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free. And vegan, of course.
I love a simple but nourishing rice pilaf and one of our favorite meals hereabouts is this quick and easy Carrot Rice paired with a creamy Coconut Curry. It's a quick weeknight dinner that's bound to leave you licking your fingers.
The Carrot Rice is a few-ingredient wonder flavored with the sublime aroma of cinnamon and cloves, and I'd first shared it with you more than a decade ago. It is such a treat, I have a hard time stopping myself from just scooping it out of the pot with my fingers and eating it until it's gone.
But as tasty as it is, it is also utterly nourishing, with the goodness of carrots, a veggie that makes just about everything you add it to both nutritious and beautiful.
In fact, I love how this carrot rice looks, with those orange shards of carrots mixed in with the long grains of the basmati rice.
A few whole spices give the rice a fragrance that's to die for.
As simple as this recipe is, I don't have too many tips and tricks for making it perfect--it's already quite foolproof. And it comes together in just over 20 minutes, so what's not to love?
Tips for making the best carrot rice:
- Use the largest holes on your hand grater or food processor to grate the carrots. You want the carrots and the rice to be approximately the same size when they cook. Keep in mind the carrots will shrink as they express their juices, and the rice will expand as it absorbs them.
- For the same reasons, slice the onions really thin. If the onion you use is big, cut the slices in half.
- You don't need to soak the rice for this recipe, which makes it come together even more quickly, since there's no prep ahead of time.
- Usually, when I share a rice recipe with you, I ask you not to stir the rice as it cooks. I will make an exception in this case. About halfway through the 20-minute mark when the rice is covered and cooked, give the rice a stir. This will help the carrots and rice mix better and cook more evenly.
- I like adding a few cashew pieces to this recipe, but they are completely optional if you want it to be nut-free.
What do I serve with carrot rice?
I almost always make this carrot rice with a creamy and just as easy Coconut Curry. Together, they are magical.
But you can also serve it with any vegetable curry, like this 20-minute Vegetable Curry or this South Indian Vegetable Curry.
More vegan rice recipes
- Ven Pongal, a south Indian khichri
- Veg Tehri, a rice and vegetable pilaf
- Vegan Dirty Rice
- Lemon Garlic Rice
- Jeera Rice or Cumin Rice
- Lemon Rice
- Vangi Bath (South Indian Eggplant Rice)
Carrot Rice
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 2-inch piece cinnamon
- 5 pods green cardamom pods
- 5 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 medium onion (thinly sliced)
- 2 tablespoon raw cashew pieces (optional)
- 2 cups carrots (grated. Approx 2 carrots)
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 4 cups water (or vegetable stock)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil. Add the whole spices--cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf--and stir for a minute until fragrant.
- Add the onions and cashews, if using, and a pinch of salt and saute, stirring frequently, until the onions become translucent but not brown.
- Stir in the carrots and saute for another couple of minutes until they start to cook. Stir in the rice along with salt to taste and mix well. As soon as the rice starts to turn opaque, add the water and salt. Give everything a good stir and let it come to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook the rice 10 minutes. At the 10-minute point, open, give the rice a good stir, and cover and cook another 10 minutes.
- Let the rice stand another 10 minutes before opening. Serve hot.
Quadetra Baccus
Hi there beautiful sunshine ☀️
Can I use the seasonings in place of the following?
▢ 2-inch piece cinnamon
▢ 5 pods green cardamom
▢ 5 cloves
If so, what amount of each? If you don’t recommend let me know.
Vaishali
Hi, use 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon and a fourth of a teaspoon of the cardamom and cloves! Hope that helps.
Cecilia
Thank you for this recipe! I made it with 1/2 brown basmati and 1/2 white basmati rice as we are trying to move towards all whole grains. I soak the brown rice for about 1-2 hours and mixed and cooked together as indicated.
Turned out great!
Erin
I love this rice! It tastes delicious, smells amazing and looks pretty. Thank you for another wonderful recipe! I'm looking forward to making the potato curry that goes with it.
Morgan L
This was terrific! I made it last night with a black-eyed pea curry and my family loved it. It's beautiful to look at at the spices were warm, fragrant and delicious. (My boys love eating the cardamom pods whole at the end also!)
Vaishali
So happy to hear!
Jane
So good! I threw some raisins into the rice along with cashews for my vegan-skeptic husband. The coconut curry clenched the deal. Thank you for helping me on my vegan journey, and for delicious gentle persuasion for my husband.
Vaishali
Amazing idea to add raisins. Carrots and raisins complement each other perfectly.
Jean Horrall
Vausgali,
Do you break the green cardamom pods or put them in whole?
Jean
Vaishali
Hi Jean, add them whole!
Anusha
Hi Vaishali
I made your carrot rice and a it was a great hit with my three year old daughter.
I sent it for her pre school snack and she came home wanting more for lunch!
Thank you so much...
You have any other similar recipes here?
Thanks again
Anusha
Vaishali
So happy to hear you and your daughter enjoyed it!
swapna
Made this last weekend and came out really good.it was so easy to put together and done in 1 hour.I posted about it in my blog.Thanks vaishali for this wonderful recipe.
laurakins
Just made this, and it's very YUM!
It's surprisingly quick, as well- by the time the potatoes were finished boiling, I had the rice finished and within minutes the rest of the meal came together!
I thought next time I might try adding some balsamic vinegar or lime to get a little extra brightess to balance out the coconut milk. But then again, I kind of liked the mellowness of it.
Thanks for a super recipe! I'll be posting pics and hyperlinks to your blog later this evening. Thanks again!
Daisy
It's lunch time here in Seattle and I'm eating carrot cake that I made following your recipe, some greens and a cauliflower curry that I learned in my Vegetarian Indian cooking classes. I think I can say that I never had such a tasty brown rice in my whole life. I simply love the combination of the cinnamon and the cloves, together with the carrots (I love carrots and I use carrots in almost everything I cook) and the onions.
This is my number one recipe for brown rice, after trying so many for several years.
Thank you! 🙂
Pavithra
yummy .. looking gorgeous