Fragrant, comforting, and easy to serve as a complete meal, Mango Rice Recipe is a South Indian main made with simple everyday ingredients in about 35 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: 25 minutes
  • Total time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Main Course
  • Cuisine: South Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 cups rice
  • 1 raw unripe green mango ((Sour, medium sized))
  • 1 to 2 sprigs curry leaves
  • 3 to 4 green chilies (slit or chopped)
  • 1 to 2 dried red chilies (broken)
  • ¾ to 1 teaspoon sea salt ((adjust to taste))
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric ((prefer organic))
  • ¼ cup peanuts (or cashewnuts)
  • 1 tablespoon chana dal ((bengal gram/ skinned split chickpeas))
  • 1 tablespoon urad dal ((skinned split black gram/lentils))
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1 inch ginger (chopped, sliced, grated)
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 1 pinch hing ((⅛ teaspoon asafetida))

Method

Preparation

  1. Cook rice to grainy texture: Add rice to a bowl & rinse it a few times. Pour 4 cups water & place the bowl in a pressure cooker. Cover the bowl & pressure cook for 3 whistles.
  2. When the pressure drops, remove the rice & cool completely.
  3. Wash, peel and grate or chop the mango. You can also grate in a processor. Update: Lately I have started to make this with cooked mango. I just peel, cut and add them to a bowl. Cover and place it in the pressure cooker over the rice bowl (PIP). Once cooked I mash it and use as mentioned below.

How to Make Mango Rice

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and fry the peanuts on a medium heat until aromatic and golden. Remove them to a plate for later.
  2. Pour 2 tablespoons more oil and heat it. Add chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds and dried red chilli.
  3. When the lentils turn light golden, add ginger, green chilies & curry leaves. Fry till the curry leaves become crisp, then add hing.
  4. Add mango, salt and turmeric. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Cook covered until the mango turns mushy, completely soft & pulpy. (skip this with cooked mango.)
  5. Add this to the cooked rice little by little and begin to mix. Taste test and add more mango mixture as required. Adjust salt and oil at this stage.
  6. Transfer mango rice to serving plates and garnish with roasted peanuts.

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.