Meethe Chawal Recipe helps to make delicious yellow sweet rice also called zarda rice or zarda pulao. This rice is often made in the Indian subcontinent on special occasions- be it festivals or marriages. In North India it is especially made during basant panchami to celebrate the onset of spring season.
Traditionally, people also make rice kheer and seviyan kheer during festivals. During Diwali I also prepare chocolate burfi and moong dal barfi.
Watch the video on How to make Meethe Chawal (Video is in Hindi with subtitles in English)
Cook the rice
Use good quality basmati rice to make meethe chawal. You may also use golden sela rice, but I prefer basmati long grain rice as it emanates nice aroma.
Wash the rice properly till the water in which it is washed becomes clear. Soak the rice for half an hour.
Though we will use saffron in this recipe, that gives yellow color to the rice, but still to get bright yellow color you may use yellow food color or turmeric. Add food color/turmeric while cooking the rice. Cook the rice in large amount of water. Cook till it is 80 percent done. Drain extra water and rest the rice in colander. It is done to get rid of starch present in rice. We do not want sticky rice. The rice would have turned bright yellow.
I have seen that turmeric powder also gives very nice yellow color; and since it is cooked nicely, there is no evident flavor of turmeric. So you can easily replace food color with turmeric powder, a natural ingredient.
Soak the saffron
When the rice is cooking take a pinch of saffron and lightly roast it in a pan. Take a tablespoon of warm water. Rub saffron grains between your palms and soak them in warm water. Roasting and rubbing the saffron to break the grains helps in extracting flavor of saffron nicely.
How to make meethe chawal?
Heat ghee in a big heavy bottomed pan. Add bay leaves (tej patta) and cloves (long). Then add cashew nuts and fry them on low flame for few seconds. Also add resins in the same ghee and fry them. Add sugar and then 1/4th cup milk. When milk starts boiling, add rice and and saffron water to it. I have used 3/4 cup sugar because I like mildly sweet rice. You can adjust the quantity of sugar according to your taste. Stir well, though carefully so as not to break rice grains. At this point also add cardamom powder. Mix everything well. Cover the lid and cook for two – three minutes. Let the rice rest for fifteen to twenty minutes. It will absorb all the milk, and will also get completely cooked.
Yellow sweet rice is ready. Serve hot. It can be enjoyed on its own as a side dish, or a dessert. Many people eat it with curry as well.
Meethe chawal recipe: serve the rice hot
You may also like my bhapa doi and kalakand recipes.
Meethe Chawal Recipe – How To Make Yellow Sweet Rice
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 4 servings | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 10 minutes | 30 minutes |
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Make yellow sweet rice for special occasions or otherwise. An easy dish, it can be prepared with leftover rice as well.
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- 1 cup long grain basmati rice Washed properly and soaked for half an hour
- 15-20 saffron strands soaked in warm water
- 1 pinch yellow food color/turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 2 bay leaves/tej patta
- 4 cloves/laung
- 5-6 thin sliver of dried coconut
- 10 cashew nuts chopped
- 10 golden resins (sultanas)/ kishmish
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
- water for soaking and cooking rice.
- Add 4 cups of water to soaked rice. Also add food color/turmeric powder, and cook the rice till 90 percent cooked. Drain water and rest the rice in a colander.
- Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add bay leaves and then cloves. Keep the flame low. Add coconut slices. After a minute, add cashew nuts and fry . When they turn slightly pink, add resins and any other dry fruit or nut you want to add. Fry till nuts turn golden. Take out few fried nuts and resins and keep aside.
- Add sugar to the pan. Then add milk and cook till milk starts boiling. Add rice and saffron water and mix well.
- Cover the rice and cook for 2-3 minutes on low flame. Open the lid. Add cardamom powder. Stir and cover the lid once again. Switch off the gas and allow the rice to rest for 15 minutes. You will notice that rice would have soaked all the extra milk.
- Serve hot garnished with fried nuts and resins.
- You can add a tablespoon of condensed milk to the rice while frying. This gives extra richness. If using sweetened condensed milk, reduce the quantity of sugar in equal amount.
- You may also add orange zest for flavor.
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