Coconut rice is my husband’s favorite rice dish. This is very easy to make one pot meal that can be done in 15 mins if your cooked rice are ready. This recipe is my husband grand ma’s recipe. I really love this rice because of the addition of secret ingredient (moong dal) which makes this rice protein rich and colorful. Here I used coconut oil for tempering the spices, so it makes the rice more flavorful. Best accompaniment for this  coconut rice are colocasia roast or potato roast or papad (appalam). I had it with cauliflower fry. 



    Ingredients

          1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp of Coconut (Fresh or Dry), I used dessicated coconut
          2 Tbsp of Moong Dal
          1 Cup of Water
          2 Cups of Cooked Rice (Pressure Cooked)
          1 Medium Size Red Onion, Finely Chopped
          2 Green Chillies
          1/2 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
          Salt to Taste

    To Temper

           1 Tbsp of Coconut Oil
           1 Red Chilly, Big
           1 Tsp of Mustard
           1 Tsp of Urad Dal
           1 Tsp of Chana Dal (Bengal Gram)
           1 Sprig of Curry Leaves
           
    Method

• Heat a pan with water, add moong dal, turmeric powder and little salt, cook in medium flame for 10-15 mins until the dal gets cooked.
• Heat a pan, dry roast the coconut until it turns to light brown color, remove it from pan and keep this aside.
• Heat a pan with oil, when it is hot, add red chilly(break it), mustard seeds, urad dal, bengal gram, curry leaves, after mustard seeds splutters, add chopped onion and green chilies, fry this for few mins until it turns golden brown. Add cooked moong dal, fry for a min, add cooked rice and little salt, mix well with dal and spices. Finally add roasted coconut to the rice, mix well and turn off the flame.
• Protein rich coconut rice is ready to serve with any colocasia fry or potato roast or appalam.

    Tips

• You can also make coconut rice without onion and dal.
• Adjust the number of green and red chilly according to your taste buds. 
• You can use nuts like peanuts and cashews while tempering.

    Health Benefits of Coconut

• Quick energy boost.
• High in dietary fiber.
• Improves heart health.
• It has anti-bacterial,anti-fungal & anti-parasitic properties.
• Coconut oil can improve blood cholesterol level, boosts brain function.       

• To the mashed rice flakes, add chopped onion, green chilly, ginger, black pepper, asafoetida, curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves, salt, rice flour, besan flour and finally add thick curd, give a quick stir. Knead well with hand to form a thick batter. Make a balls out of the batter.

• Heat oil in a shallow pan.  Take a zip lock bag or Milk cover or banana leaf or polythene sheet and have 1 cup of water in bowl on side.

• Just wet your right hand in water, place the batter ball in the center of zip lock bag greased with water. Make a hole in the middle of the batter and carefully transfer it to the hot oil. Deep fry them on medium heat, until it turns golden brown on both sides. Continue the same process for each vadai.
• Serve hot with coconut chutney or peanut chutney or tomato ketchup and tea.

Tips

• You can use thick or thin variety of aval / poha.
• To make this vadai, use white or red rice flakes.
• If you feel your batter is watery, add little more rice flour.
• Adjust the spiciness according to your taste.
• If you don’t have besan flour, just use rice flour.
• Addition of rice flour gives crispy taste to vadai.
• You can also add 1/2 tsp of cumin or fennel seeds, for easy digestion. Instead I added asafoetida for digestion.

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