Wash and soak rice in water for 10 – 20 minutes.
Next, cook the rice until it is soft and mushy. You can cook the rice in a pressure cooker or instant pot as well. Transfer to a wide bowl or plate and allow to cool down completely.
Mix salt and yogurt. Whisk nicely so that no lumps remain.
Combine rice with curd. If the mixture seems too thick add 1/4 cup of cold milk or water to get the desired consistency.
To prepare the tempering, heat oil/ghee in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and Asafoetida. Cook till Mustard seeds splutter.
Add Urad daal and cook for 1 minute till the daal turns a little light brown in color.
Add green chilies and Ginger.
Lightly toast the Red chilies as well. Add the Tempering to the curd Rice.
Garnish curd rice with pomegranate pearls. Serve immediately with papad, pickle or anything crunchy. Even by itself, it tastes heavenly.
Recipe Notes
f the curd rice seems too thick, use either cold water or milk to get the desired consistency.
Grated carrot or diced cucumber can be combined in the curd rice before tempering.
For tempering, you can use either, ghee, refined oil, coconut oil or any other cooking oil of choice.
Leftover rice can also be used for making curd rice. But try to use short grain rice and not basmati or any other long grain rice. Short grain rice is high on starch content. Hence, helpful in making creamy curd rice.
Rice can be cooked in a pressure cooker or instant pot as well.