Bisi Bele Bathબીસી બેલે ભાત
Rice, dal and vegetables cooked together with a special spice blend and plenty of ghee. A complete one-pot meal from Karnataka.
Ingredients
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- 1 cup rice, ½ cup toor dal
- 1½ cups chopped vegetables (carrot, beans, peas, bottle gourd)
- 2 tbsp bisi bele bath powder
- 2 tbsp tamarind pulp, a little jaggery
- Turmeric, salt
- Tempering: ghee, mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, cashews, dried chilli
Method
- Pressure cook the rice and dal with turmeric until soft, keeping it on the wetter side.
- Boil the vegetables separately until tender.
- Add the vegetables, spice powder, tamarind, jaggery and salt to the rice and dal.
- Loosen with hot water and simmer 10 minutes; it should stay like a thick khichdi.
- Temper ghee with mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, cashews and dried chilli, and pour over.
- Serve hot with a spoon of ghee and a papad.
Tips
- It thickens as it cools, so loosen with hot water before serving.
- Don't cut back the ghee; the dish depends on it.
Storing and reheating
Bisi bele bath sets into a solid block as it cools, so do not leave it out longer than four or five hours. It keeps two days in the fridge. Reheat it in a pan with half a cup of hot water, stirring continuously, or it catches and scorches on the base. Add fresh ghee on top; the ghee already in it tastes flat the next day.
What you can swap
- No bisi bele bath powder? Use two tablespoons of sambar powder with a pinch of cinnamon-clove powder and a tablespoon of grated dry coconut. Not identical, but close.
- For tamarind pulp, dissolve half a teaspoon of tamarind paste in half a cup of water. Kokum also works. Do not use tomato; its acidity sits badly with this spice blend.
- Masoor dal can replace toor dal and cooks faster, but it dissolves completely, so you lose the distinct taste of dal in the finished dish.
- Avoid long-grain basmati. Use sona masuri or any short-grain rice, because the grains are meant to break down slightly here rather than stay separate.
What to serve with it
In South India this is treated as a complete meal on its own, with no other curry needed. Serve it with khara boondi, papad, potato crisps and plain curd. In a Gujarati kitchen it makes an easy one-pot dinner.
Mistakes to avoid
- Do not cook the rice and dal dry. This is a khichdi-style dish where the grains should be soft, slightly broken and wet, so be generous with water in the cooker.
- Add the tamarind and jaggery only after the vegetables are tender. Carrot and beans stop softening in acid, and no amount of extra simmering will fix them afterwards.
- Too much spice powder makes the dish bitter rather than hot. It carries a lot of coriander, fenugreek and dried chilli. Start with two tablespoons and taste.
- Do not cover it and walk away while it simmers. Run a spoon across the bottom every couple of minutes, because a scorched base flavours the whole pot.
Questions people ask
Is bisi bele bath the same as sambar rice?
No. Sambar rice is sambar made separately and poured over cooked rice. In bisi bele bath the rice, dal, vegetables and spice cook together until everything merges into one mass. The spice blend is different too, built on dry coconut and whole warm spices rather than sambar powder alone.
How much water do I add if it has gone too thick?
A quarter cup of hot water at a time, brought back to a simmer, then judge again. It should slide slowly off a spoon. Cold water dulls the flavour and makes it stick to the pan, so always use hot water.
Can everything go into the cooker together?
Boiling the vegetables separately gives a far better result. Cooked together, carrot and beans disintegrate and bottle gourd releases water that thins everything. If you are short of time, put the rice and dal in the cooker and the vegetables in a pan alongside; both finish at about the same moment.
