I am sure by know you know why this rice is on the menu. One reason is, of course, it starts with the alphabet ‘V’ but more importantly I have to exhaust the vepampoo (dried neem flowers) that I bought for the Tamizh New Year this month. The family has been fed a regular diet of Vepampoo Rasam and so this time I figured I could make a rice dish with it.
It is a delicious dish if you like the slightly bitter taste of the dried neem flowers. Fried in ghee, it makes for a lovely weekday meal. I paired it with a bowl of curds and surprisingly the daughter loved it. She gobbled up her share and asked for more. That is the ultimate stamp of approval and I can’t believe this happened.
Serves 2-3
Recipe from here
WHAT WE NEED
1 cup Rice
2-3 tsp Ghee / Clarified butter
1/2 tsp Asofoetida powder
1 tsp Urad dal / Skinless split black gram
2 tsp Vempapoo / Dried Neem Flowers
1 sprig Curry leaves
1 Dried red chilly
Salt
Water
WHAT TO DO
- Cook rice as per your usual procedure
- In a small pan, heat the ghee and add asofoetida and urad dal
- Add the red chilly, curry leaves and vepampoo / dried neem flowers
- Fry it on low heat till the urad dal turns brown and the neem flowers turn black
- Pour it over the cooked rice
- Add salt and mix well
- Serve warm with curds or chips
- Enjoy!
This is my post for the Biryani / Pulao / Khichadi festival for the alphabet ‘V’
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Thachi mammu with vepampoo – now that’s a combo I would love to try! the husband and the elder one are huge fans of fried vepampoo and fried garlic for their sunday meal.. good pick for the letter 🙂
A good one. I haven’t ever cooked with neem leaves but your rice sounds very healthy.
This is new to me ! Cooking with neem flowers , wow ! Tell me how bitter are the flowers ? I bet the bitterness must be reduced after frying .
The bitterness is significantly reduced but there will still be a slight taste of bitterness in the dish. We need to fry till it turns black for the bitterness to go
Wow! Such a unique recipe, Sowmya. Glad your family enjoys neem flowers. In our place the neem flowers are barely tolerated in ugadi pachadi 🙂
Neem flower sauteed on ghee,the flavor is incredible..I get the point how your daughter felt .. yummy share..
Wow, you attempted a rice with a neem powder. I was hooked on reading as how it will taste as was worried it might be bitter. It looks quite tempting and as your daughter approved it looks like a must try.
Wow i didnt know we can use neem flower also in cooking. Something new I learnt today. Recipe sounds so flavorful. Must try dish.
I love vepampoo fried in ghee. I eat it just like that. Adding it to rice would make an absolutely delicious meal.
Though we too get it for Ugadi, I never tried using the leaves. Will surely try it next time. Nice to know your daughter liked it.
You won’t believe if I say this was a staple in our household back in India. Amma used to make it weekly once. Along with vepampoo, she adds manathakkali vathal, sudai kai vathal and also mor milagai instead of red chili. While mixing it with she crushes them and it tastes amazing.
Never used neem flowers in rice or infact in any dish. would love to try this sometime in future when I have neem flowers handy