The other day after lunch, there was a lot of leftover rice and so I asked my cook, Prema maushi to make tadka rice or “phodni cha bhaat” as we Maharashtrians call it. When I was having it as my evening snack, I offered some to Devansh and he liked it. So afer a couple of days I asked maushi to make tadka rice for Devansh. Maushi is the only person other than me who cooks for Devansh on a daily basis. Devansh has same food as us for lunch, which is cooked by maushi. By now maushi knows exactly the kind of food Devansh likes.
Devansh had his three servings of vegetables in breakfast and lunch, and so I gave him this tadka rice as his evening snack. He normally doesn’t like eating dry rice/pulao/khichdi, so I either make it slightly runny or I serve it to him with curds. So I kept a bowl of curds in Devansh’s plate just in case he didn’t want to have dry tadka rice. But to my surprise he finished an entire plate of rice just like that.
Many Maharashtrians would be aware of this recipe. It is really simple to make and doesn’t take more than five minutes of your time if you have cooked rice ready. Give this tadka rice a try; I am sure your li’l one will enjoy this.

Tadka Rice (Phodni cha Bhaat) Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked rice
- Half medium sized onion chopped
- 1/4 th tsp mustard seeds
- 3-4 curry leaves
- 1-2 pieces of non-spicy green chili optional
- 1/5 th tsp haldi turmeric powder
- Pinch of hing asafoetida
- 1-2 tsps oil 1 tsp is enough if you are using non-stick pan
- 1 tsp chopped coriander
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat a pan, add oil, and then add mustard seeds.
- When the mustard seeds crackle, add curry leaves.
- Add chopped onion and sauté for a couple of minutes.
- Add hing and pieces of green chili, and sauté till the onion becomes translucent.
- Add haldi and salt, and stir it for about half a minute. (If you happen to have metkut at home, you can use it instead of haldi to enhance the flavor of tadka rice. Metkut is a Maharashtrian recipe. It’s a yellow-colored powder made using rice, wheat, some lentils, and spices, including haldi.)
- Now add cooked rice and mix it properly with the mixture in the pan.
- Stir the rice for 3-4 minutes till the entire rice gets a nice yellow color from haldi.
- Add chopped coriander and give it one final stir.
- Turn off heat and the tadka rice is ready to be served.
Tadka rice or Vaggarane rice as we call in Kannada is one of my favorite dishes! Simple and fast. Tried this for Vishruth and he liked it too :) Infact adding few drops of lemon juice improved the taste!
Thanks for the tip. I'll try adding lemon juice next time. :)