How To Make Meethe Chawal for Basant Panchmi |

Making Meethe Yellow rice on Basant Panchmi is easy to go recipe where sweetened rice are offered to Goddess Saraswati.

This Saffron Rice recipe uses jaggery powder thus avoiding refined sugar totally.

My humble attempt to present it in the shape of Veena (Sitar), Goddess Saraswati's musical instrument.

Basant Panchmi marks goodbye to winters and welcomes the vibrant Spring season. The lovely festival of Basant Panchmi symbolizes liveliness.... the brilliance of nature....when flowers are in full bloom spreading joy and happiness.

This is the day to worship the Goddess of wisdom, intellect, and learning... Goddess Saraswati.
On the auspicious day of Basant Panchmi, I pray to Goddess Saraswati that the desire for learning continues to simmer in all of us throughout our lives. May we keep enriching ourselves by learning something or the other, irrespective of our age.

With Jaggery

Earlier, I used to make this saffron rice with sugar and add saffron to impart the yellow color. But as I have shifted to healthy sweeteners, so I tried these with jaggery and am very happy with the results. Agreed that the resultant color is not vibrant yellow but this not-so-yellow sweet rice is perfectly healthy and guilt-free.

Here, I would also like to mention that I make Gur Ke Chawal (Jaggery rice) a lot during winters. And have thus used the same recipe for making yellow sweet rice also.

Why You Will Love This Recipe

Made with jaggery
truly aromatic
Guilt-free recipe
Easy recipe

Step By Step Recipe

A. Boil Rice

Soak rice for an hour or so.

Take 4 cups of water in a vessel, add clove, cardamom, and cinnamon stick, and put it to boil.

Tip: This makes the rice very aromatic, so do not skip the spices.

When the water starts boiling add soaked and drained rice.

Simmer the gas and let the rice cook. After 8-10 minutes, when the rice gets boiled, strain it by putting it in a colander. Remove whole spices from the rice.

B. For Sweet Yellow Rice

Take milk in a cup, add saffron and muddle it to extract the beautiful yellow color of saffron. Keep it aside.
Take boiled rice in a pan.

Add jaggery powder, clarified butter, yellow color, and saffron milk mixture to the boiled rice. Toss very lightly, cover, and leave for 5-7 minutes.

During this time, due to the heat of boiled rice, sugar will dissolve, and also saffron mixture will impart its lovely color to the rice and you will have lovely sweet rice but watery.

Cover and cook on sim gas for 10-15 minutes till the water evaporates and rice becomes dry.

Tip: It's important that you keep the flame low.

Garnish this with roasted slivered almonds, cashews, pistachio, etc., and desiccated coconut. Offer it to Goddess Saraswati. Serve with pleasure.

FAQs

Q) Can I make this with leftover rice?

Yes. If not making for Basant Panchmi, then, of course, you can use your leftover rice too.

Q) I do not have jaggery powder. Instead, I have jaggery in blocks. How to use it?

In that case, weigh jaggery.
Break it into small pieces.
In a thick bottomed pan, put jaggery pieces along with 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
Let it melt.
When it melts fully, mix boiled rice in it.
Cover with a lid and let it cook on sim flame.
After 10 to 15 minutes, all the excess water will evaporate and your Jaggery rice will be ready.

Q) Can I make Meethi Seviyan also with this recipe?

Yes. Simply, replace rice with Seviyan (Vermicelli), and your Meethi Seviyan will be ready.

Some Other Festive Recipes

LET’S CONNECT

I hope you have liked this Meethe Chawal recipe and will surely try it out for your loved ones. I will be happy if you share your creations on Instagram and tag me #samirasrecipediary there.

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