Nellikai sadam | Amla rice recipe, Indian gooseberry rice

Nellikai sadam, amla or Indian gooseberry rice is healthy, delicious as well as easy to prepare rice. Made with the big variety nellikai.

We always make neer nellikai, thayir pachadi with this one. Recently tried pickle with this nellikai . Recently, when I was chatting with my friend Suji, she told me she made nellikai sadam and I thought I too should try making rice and post it here. Got some fresh amla in Mustafa and made it.

I remember once I have tried making rice with arai nellikkai, but this is the first time I make it with periya nellikai. My MIL makes nellikkai thogayal by grinding nellikai with green chilli and tamarind. I thought I will try the same combo in rice but by grating the amla and replacing tamarind with lemon (idea adapted from Kamala’s corner). I loved this rice like any other variety rice and going to make often. 

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Nellikai sadam recipe

Nellikai sadam, amla or Indian gooseberry rice is healthy, delicious as well as easy to prepare rice. Made with the big variety nellikai.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings 2

Cup measurements

Ingredients

• 2 cups Cooked rice
• 4 Nellikai/ amla Big variety
• 1 & 1/2 tsp Lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp Asafoetida
• Salt – As needed

To temper

• 1 tbsp Ghee or sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp Mustard
• 1 tsp Urad dal
• 2 tsp Chana dal
• 2 tbsp Ground nuts
• 5 Green chillies
• 1 Curry leaves sprig
• 1 Pinch Asafoetida

Instructions

• Pressure cook rice and cool down with little salt and a tsp of oil/ ghee. This makes the grains separate.
• Grate amla in a fine grater.
• Heat kadai and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order.
• Once the dal, nuts turns golden, add grated amla and fry for a minute in medium flame.
• Add required salt, asafoetida and mix well. Switch off the flame, add lemon juice and mix well.
• Add cooked rice and mix well. Transfer to the serving bowl.

Notes

• My amlas were very big, so I used just 3.
• Adjust green chilli as per the spice level you need and the chilli’s nature.
• Make sure ground nut is fried in low flame to ensure even cooking and gets crisp.
• Ghee and sesame oil works best for this rice.
• You can replace groundnut with cashew nuts.

Nellikai sadam method

1. Pressure cook rice and cool down with little salt and a tsp of oil/ ghee. This makes the grains separate.
2. Grate amla in a fine grater. Heat kadai and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order.
3. Once the dal, nuts turns golden, add grated amla and fry for a minute in medium flame.
4. Add required salt, asafoetida and mix well. Switch off the flame, add lemon juice and mix well.
5. Add cooked rice and mix well. Transfer to the serving bowl.

Notes

• My amlas were very big, so I used just 3. Adjust green chilli as per the spice level u require and the chilli’s nature.
• Make sure ground nut is fried in low flame to ensure even cooking and gets crisp.
• Ghee and smesame oil works best for this rice.
• You can replace groundnut with cashew nuts.

I had it with keerai kootu and some fried vadam. You can have it with mix veg kootu also.