National Dish Sri Lanka: Rice and Curry (Recipe)
In this article
Rice and Curry is not a dish, it is a plate: rice in the middle and five or six small curries around it, each cooked separately. A vegetable, a dal, a fish or meat, a sambol and a mallung. The variety is the point.
About Rice and Curry
Sri Lankan curries differ from Indian ones in three ways: the dark-roasted Ceylon curry powder, the heavy use of coconut milk, and pandan and curry leaves in nearly everything.
A proper plate has contrast built into it: something rich, something sour, something raw and fiercely hot. Coconut sambol supplies the last of those.
Ingredients (serves 1–2)
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup vegetables (such as carrots, beans or aubergine)
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 2 tablespoons oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Shopping for the ingredients
Roasted Ceylon curry powder rather than a generic blend, and it is worth making. Fresh curry leaves and pandan, sold frozen in Asian shops. Red rice is what Sri Lankans mostly eat, and it is nuttier than basmati.
Preparing the dish
Cook the components separately, which is the whole structure of the meal. Temper the mustard seeds in hot oil until they pop before anything else goes in. Add the thick coconut milk at the end, off the boil, so it does not split.
Step-by-step instructions
- Bring the water to the boil and add the soaked rice. Cook over a medium heat until tender.
- Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Wait until they begin to splutter.
- Add curry leaves and a strip of pandan if you have them.
- Add the chopped vegetables and the curry powder and fry briefly to toast the spices.
- Pour in the coconut milk, lower the heat and let it simmer until the vegetables are tender.
- Season the curry with salt and pepper and serve alongside the rice with a sambol.
Gluten-free / lactose-free version
Rice, coconut and vegetables contain no gluten and no dairy. Check the curry powder for wheat bulking agents. Otherwise the whole plate is naturally suitable.
Tips for vegans and vegetarians
Most of a Sri Lankan plate is already vegan: dal, vegetable curries, coconut sambol, mallung. Meat and fish are one dish among several rather than the centre. This is one of the easiest cuisines in the world to eat plant-based in.
More tips and tricks
Temper the mustard seeds until they pop. Add thick coconut milk off the heat at the end, since boiling splits it. And make several small curries rather than one large one, because the contrast between them is the whole meal.
Adapting the recipe to your taste
Add a dhal curry and a coconut sambol to make a real plate. Pol sambol, coconut with chilli and lime, is the essential sharp element. Coconut milk rice replaces plain rice for special occasions.
Ingredient substitutions
Red or samba rice is more authentic than basmati. Any vegetable works: aubergine, okra, pumpkin, beans, jackfruit. Coconut cream for a richer curry.
Drink pairing ideas
Ceylon tea, unsurprisingly. King coconut water is the everyday drink. Lion lager with a hot plate.
Serving and presentation ideas
Rice in the middle of the plate, small mounds of each curry around it, sambol at the edge. Sri Lankans mix with the fingers of the right hand, taking a little of several curries with each mouthful. That mixing is how the meal is designed to work.
A bit of history
Sri Lanka traded spices for two thousand years and its cooking absorbed Indian, Malay, Arab, Portuguese and Dutch influences without losing its own base of coconut, curry leaf and dark-roasted spice. The rice and curry plate is the structure all of it fits into. It anchors Sri Lankan cuisine.
More recipe ideas
- Ceylon Curry Powder Blend
- Chicken Curry
- Coconut Milk Rice
- Coconut Sambol
- Dhal Curry
- Mixed Vegetable Curry
Summary: Rice and Curry
Rice and curry is rice with several small curries around it, each cooked separately. Temper the mustard seeds, add coconut milk off the heat, and make more than one curry.
