Fragrant, comforting, and easy to serve as a complete meal, Coconut Rice (Thengai Sadam) is a vegetarian Indian, South Indian main course made with cooked sona masoori rice, grated coconut, and green chillies in about 15 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 5 minutes
  • Total time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: Indian, South Indian

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups cooked sona masoori rice ((any kind of rice))
  • 1/2 cup grated coconut ((fresh or frozen))
  • 2 green chillies (slit lengthwise)
  • 1 broken red chilies (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin (jeera) seeds
  • 1 teaspoon chana dal
  • 1 teaspoon split urad dal
  • 1 stalk curry leaves
  • 8-10 cashew nuts ((or peanuts))
  • 1 pinch asafoetida(hing) ((optional))
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil ((or ghee))
  • salt (as needed)

Method

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil/ghee in a Kadai. Add mustard, cumin seeds, dals, red chili, hing saute for 1 minute till dals turn light brown.
  2. Add cashew nuts, green chilies, curry leaves, ginger. Saute for another 1 minute.
  3. Then add freshly grated coconut, salt, and saute it for 1-2 minutes.
  4. Once cooked, add cooked rice and adjust salt, mix well and turn off the flame.
  5. Coconut Rice is ready & serve hot with raita.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.