Little Millet Lemon Rice (Samai Lemon Rice) is a South Indian style lemon rice recipe made with little millets. Little millets or Samai are cooked and tossed in a tempering of mustard seeds, lentils, curry leaves, turmeric.
Fresh Lemon juice makes it slightly tangy which further enhances its taste and gives it a distinctive flavor. The lemon millet recipe is perfect for office lunch boxes and picnics.
Millets are the best replacement for rice, they taste like rice, and they cook like rice. They just are smaller in size, more like broken rice.
They get digested slowly, giving sustained energy. Millets are ideal for diabetics looking for an alternative grain to rice. They also help increase the bio-availability of minerals and have strong antioxidant properties. Regular consumption helps in decreasing triglycerides and C-reactive protein.
You can also check my other millet recipes like Little Millet Upma, Bajra(Pearl Millet) Khichdi, Kodo Millet Pulao
Benefits of Millets?
For humans, they release glucose slowly into the bloodstream as against highly processed Rice & wheat, which release it very quickly. Millets are highly nutritious and rich in calcium, protein, fiber and the list goes on. They are gluten-free, unlike rice and wheat.
- Prevent diabetes
- Healthy heart
- Prevent cancer
- Anti-aging properties
- Balance cholesterol level
- Strengthen bones
- Assist digestion
How to Make Little Millet Lemon Rice
Cooking Millets
- Pressure Cooker Method: Wash little millet thoroughly 2-3 times and add 1 cup of water for ½ cup of little millet/Samai and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Let the pressure/steam release naturally.
- Once cooled, fluff it up nicely with a fork, so there are no lumps, and the grains stay separate.
Method
- In a Kadai, add oil once it's hot, add in the peanuts and fry them until they turn slightly golden brown.
- Secondly, add mustard seeds, urad dal, jeera, hing, green chilies, curry leaves, and fry for 30 secs till the dal turns golden brown.
- Then add turmeric powder and onion. Saute for a minute or two till the onion turns slightly brown.
- Turn off the flame and add cooled millets, salt, and squeeze the juice of a half lemon. Mix everything well.
- Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve hot with papad or pickle.
Tips to make Lemon Millet Recipe
- You can make this samai lemon rice recipe without onions too.
- If you don't have a pressure cooker, then in an open pot, add 1.5 cups of water, bring water to a boil, and add ½ cup of little millet. Close the lid and cook on medium flame till all water is absorbed. It should be slightly soggy. Once cooled, fluff it up nicely with a fork, so there are no lumps and the grains stay separate.
More Lemon Recipes
More Rice Recipes
Little Millet Lemon Rice (Samai Lemon Rice)
Ingredients
Measuring 1 cup = 250 ml
- ½ cup Little millet(samai) uncooked
- 1 cup water
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 2 green chilles finely chopped
- few curry leaves
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 2 tablespoon peanuts(groundnut)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seed
- 1 teaspoon urad dal
- ¼ teaspoon jeera(cumin)
- a pinch hing (asafetida)
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves finely chopped
- juice of half lemon
- 2 tablespoon oil
- salt as per taste
Instructions
Cooking Millets
- Pressure Cooker Method:Wash little millet throughly 2-3 times and add 1 cup of water for ½ cup of little millet/Samai and pressure cook for 1 whistle.Let the pressure/steam release naturally.
- Once cooled fluff it up nicely with a fork, so there are no lumps and the grains stay separate.
How to make Little Millet Lemon Rice
- In a kadai ,add oil once its hot ,add in the peanuts and fry them until they turn slight golden brown.
- Secondly add mustard seeds, urad dal, jeera, hing,green chilles ,curry leaves and fry 30 secs till dal turn golden brown.
- Then add turmeric powder and onion . Saute for a minute or two till the onion turns slight brown in color.
- Turn off the flame and add cooled millets, salt and squeeze the juice of half lemon.Mix everything well.
- Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve hot with papad or pickle.
Notes
Nutrition
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joseph says
Great lemon rice !! That is a beautiful tart and a fantastic sounding recipe. Your posts are always easy to understand and Helpful. Thank You,
GinnyB says
This was very good. I didn't use the peanuts (didn't have any) and I doubled the lemon juice. Will definitely make again. Thanks for this lovely and different side dish.
Bhavana Patil says
Thank you Ginny for trying out the recipe and sharing your feedback 😊 Happy cooking, have a great day 😊