Name: Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom Seeds
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 17 min
Total time: 37 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon oil; 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder; 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder; all the seeds from 2 whole smashed cardamom pods; 1/2 teaspoon sea salt; 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped finely, stems and leaves separated; 1 cup of long-grain rice (jasmine or basmati); 1/2 of a jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced; juice of 1/2 lime; plus more, to taste

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I often serve rice as a side dish, but this recipe for Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom Seeds is a real game changer for me. With just a couple of added steps, your side dish goes from boring, to something to write home about! It’s great with pork chops, as you see pictured below, but lately, I’ve also been loving it with fish.

Easy Cilantro Lime Rice, plated with Jalapeño Cilantro Grilled Pork Chops. That’s another delicious easy to do recipe I have available to you here on my website.

Gently toasting the rice in butter before it steams – which at the same time causes the flavor compounds in a couple of fat-soluble spices to bloom, and then garnishing the dish with the vibrant fresh acidity of lime juice and the bright herbal flavor note of cilantro, makes this side dish shine.

The Two Pivotal Steps that Make Easy Cilantro Lime Rice Spectacular!

1. Toast the Rice and Spices

One thing I learned from Indian Cooking is that many spices and herbs have flavor compounds that bloom and develop in fat. They are “fat soluble”, and once you add heat to that herb or spice plus fat, the spices and herbs’ flavors change, and intensify. That’s what makes certain dishes taste so ALIVE!

The rice, and herbs and spices being toasted in butter.

The rice, the cilantro stems, the cardamom seeds, and the garlic and onion powder take a nice butter bath, which gently toasts the rice, and blooms the flavor of the herbs and spices.

Even when you toast rice alone in butter, you’ll get a nutty aroma, as the butter begins to brown. It’s delightful! So just imagine what fat and heat can do for rice with spices! It does beautiful flavorful things, my friends.

2. Add Acid and Herbs at the End to Add Even More Flavor!

There are certain flavor elements to dishes that don’t survive heat very well, and those two flavor notes are acids (like vinegars or citrus juices) and leafy green herbs (herbs like cilantro, or basil, or parsley). So in this dish, we add the lime juice and the parsley and a little fresh jalapeño at the end, to add a bit of zing.

Jalapeño trimmed of most of the ribs and seeds.

You can see here that I’ve trimmed out most of the ribs and seeds. The heat from this raw, but finely chopped jalapeño, since it’s added after the cooking is done, provides a nice little zing.

You’ll find that these two pivotal steps take a side dish from boring to thrilling! Remember, you can use these principles in many recipes that you cook.

Wake spices and woody herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage) up by sautéing them in fat.
Make a dish more vibrant after cooking by adding acids, or leafy herbs (which are water soluble).
The finished rice, still in the pot: a pot of Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom Seeds.

About Cardamom

Cardamom is a fruit, that grows in India, that most of us in the US think of as a spice. It’s found in the spice section of our grocery store. You can buy it where the dried seeds or already ground, or buy the unground seeds, which is probably the most expensive way to buy it. Personally, I try to find and purchase the whole pods of cardamom, which are generally green. (The white pods have less flavor.) I find them at Whole Foods in the bulk spice section, and I also ran across them once, quite unexpectedly, at World Market. I’m sure you could find the whole pods in any Indian grocery store, or at any spice specialty store. But the EASIEST way to obtain them is to use my handy dandy affiliate link, which you’ll find right below the recipe card.

The green cardamom pod, when smashed open, holds brown cardamom seeds.

The green part is called the cardamom’s pod. Smash it open, and you’ll see a cluster of brown seeds. They’re what you cook with.

To use the cardamom pods, I smash the paper-like pod on my cutting board with the side of my chef’s knife, and then extract the little seeds from the broken pods. There are usually 10-12 seeds in a pod, so to make this recipe, I smash two green seed pods, and use all their little seeds.

Cardamom’s flavor is complex: you’ll taste notes that are piney, fruity, citrusy, and almost menthol-like. I absolutely love it.

Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom seeds pin for Pinterest

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The Recipe for Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom

Yield: 4 servings

Easy Cilantro Lime Rice with Cardamom Seeds

Reminiscent of Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice, but BETTER, this recipe for Easy Cilantro Lime Rice gives two pivotal steps to optimize flavor.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 17 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 37 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
all the seeds from 2 whole smashed cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped finely, stems and leaves separated
1 cup of long-grain rice (jasmine or basmati)
1/2 of a jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed, thinly sliced
juice of 1/2 lime; plus more, to taste

Instructions

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat Add the oil, then stir in the cardamom seeds, onion powder, garlic powder, and cilantro stems, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the rice, and stir it for another 30 seconds, lightly toasting it.
Add 1 1/2 cups water and the sea salt, and raise the heat to bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to bring everything in the pan to a simmer, and allow rice to cook covered, until all the water is absorbed: about 17 to 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and allow the rice to sit covered. It will continue steaming another 10 minutes.
Fold in the cilantro leaves, the jalapeño, and the lime juice. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt or lime juice, as needed.