Capsicum rice recipe – a flavorful and spiced capsicum masala rice. In this recipe, rice is flavored with spices and colorful capsicums make this rice both healthy and delicious. Both the green and red capsicums and the spiced masala lend a nice color to the rice.
One of my favorite dishes with bell peppers is capsicum masala curry.
This bell pepper rice is equally delicious and tastes great with a simple raita or a curry to go with it. Here I have served it with carrot raita.
In this recipe, coconut is used to make a spiced masala paste. The nutty coconut and crunchy bell peppers give a nice texture to the capsicum rice. I had only green and red capsicums available with me and used them here. Yellow capsicums too can be used for a more colorful rice.
For other rice recipes do check out
As for health benefits, bell peppers are a great source of vitamin C and are low in calories. Lets move on to the recipe for easy capsicum rice.
How to make Capsicum Rice step by step
- Prepare the rice and set it aside to cool down completely.
- In the meantime, prepare the masala paste. For this, heat oil in a pan and add dry red chillies and coriander seeds. Fry till the coriander seeds turn golden brown in color. Then add the chopped onions, ginger and garlic. Fry till onions turn light brown in color. Add chopped tomatoes. Fry till tomatoes are mashed and raw smell goes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Grind the tomato mixture along with grated coconut to a fine paste. Finally to prepare capsicum masala rice, heat oil in a pan. Add whole spices and saute for a few seconds. Then add the sliced onions.
- Fry till onions turn golden brown at the edges. Then add the sliced capsicums and fry till capsicums turn soft but still crunchy. Now add the masala paste along with salt.
- Mix well and fry for 2 minutes. Finally add the prepared rice and mix well.
- Capsicum rice is ready to be served.
Easy Capsicum Rice | Capsicum Masala Rice Recipe
Capsicum Rice recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice ( or long-grained rice )
- 3/4 cup sliced capsicums ( bell peppers or shimla mirch )
- 1 small onion
- 1 bay leaf ( tejpatta )
- 2 cloves ( laung )
- 1 inch piece cinnamon ( dalchini )
- 3 tsp oil
- Salt to taste
For masala paste
- 1 small onion
- 1 large tomato
- 3 tbsp grated coconut
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 1 tsp chopped ginger
- 2-3 dry red chillies
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp oil
Instructions
- Rinse the rice 4-5 times in water. Soak the rice in enough water for 1/2 hour.
Prepare masala for rice
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan. Add broken dry red chillies and coriander seeds and fry till the coriander seeds turn golden brown in color.
- Then add chopped onions, ginger and garlic and fry till onions turn light brown at the edges.
- Now add the chopped tomatoes. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Then fry the tomatoes till they are mashed and the raw smell goes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool down.
- Then grind the cooked tomato mixture along with grated coconut to a fine paste. Add just little water, if required, to grind it to a fine paste. Set this masala paste aside.
Prepare rice
- Drain all the water from the soaked rice. Pressure cook the rice with 1 and 3/4 cups water for 2 whistles. Alternatively, you could simmer the rice along with water in a covered pan for 10 minutes. Switch off the flame and keep the pan covered for 5 minutes. Then fluff the rice using a fork. Spread the rice on a plate or wide bowl to cool completely.
Assemble capsicum rice
- Finely slice the onions and cut the capsicums into thin slices.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add bay leaf, cloves and cinnamon. Saute for a few seconds. Then add the sliced onions. Fry till onions turn almost golden brown at the edges.
- Now add the sliced capsicums. Fry till capsicums turn slightly soft but still crunchy.
- Add the ground masala paste along with salt. Mix well and fry for two minutes on a slow flame.
- Finally add the rice that has been cooled down. Mix well till the rice has been coated with the masala paste. Remove from heat.
- Capsicum rice is now ready to be served.
Notes
- I have used green and red capsicums for making the rice. You could even use yellow capsicums.
- Make sure to cool down the rice completely before mixing it with the masala paste, else the rice will turn mushy.
- You could use leftover rice to make this capsicum rice.
Nutrition Information
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