Bisi Bele Bath | Hot Lentil Rice |Authentic Karnataka Cuisine

Bisi Bele Bath, an authentic dish from Karnataka cuisine is delicious rice prepared with dal/lentils and vegetables are nicely cooked with masala powder. The specially prepared Masala powder has many flavorful and rich tastes which make this dish so special. And, in the end adding the tempering makes this dish super special.  In this recipe, I have used the instant/ready bisi bele bath Masala powder.

Try this easy method of Bisi Bele Bath recipe and turn dinner into a special occasion with its mouth-watering aroma and richness. Learn how to make Authentic Karnataka style Bisi Bele Bath dish by following the given step by step recipe.

In Kannada language “Bisi” means Hot “Bele” means dal/lentils and “Bath” means rice. i.e Hot Lentil Rice. 

Ingredients:

Rice – 1 cup

Toor Dal /  Split yellow gram - ½ cup

Vegetables:

Onion – ½ cup chopped

Tomato – 1/2 cup chopped

String Beans – ¼ cup chopped

Carrot – ¼ cup chopped

Baby Limo Beans – ¼ cup

Masala Powders:

Bisi Bele Bath Powder – 3 tbsp (Available in Indian Grocery Store)

Red chili Powder – 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp

Salt to Taste

Tamarind Juice – 1 tbsp

Seasoning:

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp

Urud Dal /White Lentils – 1 tsp

Whole Red Chili – 2 nos.

Curry leaves – Few

Hing/ Asafoetida – a Pinch

Ground nuts – ¼ cup

Cashews/ Kaju – few (Optional)

Oil/butter for seasoning

Preparation:

Cook the rice nicely. Rice should be mushy for this recipe. Add more water while cooking. In case, if you forgot to add more water not to worry… I found a simple solution - Take a big mixer jar add cooked rice and cup of water and just run it once…  this makes rice mushy and bit watery. (do this process in batch wise)

Cook the dal/lentils in a pressure cooker and allow them to cool and blend it nicely adding ½ cup of water

Cook all vegetables in pressure cooker. Here I am using simple to fry vegetables, so I am directly cooking in a pan.

                                                 

Easy tip:  In a pressure cooker set the rice , dal and vegetables in a separate utensil and cook. It saves lots of time.

Method:

Heat oil in a pan in medium flame, once oil is hot enough add the onion and saute them till it turns to pink color.  Then add the chopped strings beans and carrot saute them for 1 or 2 minutes or till the vegetables slightly cooked

Add the baby lima beans and tomato and cook them for 2 more minutes or till all vegetables are cooked nicely. (Lima beans give extra taste to this dish.)

Add blended dal mixture, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, bisi bele bath powder, tamarind juice and 2 cups of water

Mix it nicely and cook them till all raw masala powder smell disappears

Add the cooked rice in batch wise and mix the rice with gravy. 

Gravy rice should be little bit watery consistent not as dry rice.  Adjust the salt, spicy and tanginess and water in this step.

Heat a butter for seasoning, add the mustard seeds and urad dal/white lentils and allow them to crack, add curry leaves, hing, and red chili and fry for 1 minute and add the roasted ground nuts and mix it nicely with seasoning oil and dunk this tempering on top of gravy rice mixture.

Serving: Serve with onion tomato raita and roasted papad. Enjoy this simple divine dinner.

Note: 

For this recipe, rice should be nicely cooked in a mushy way. This gives nice smooth and soft texture to bisi bele bath

You can add vegetables other than above are like green peas, capsicum (green), chayote squash (chow chow), cauliflower florets and  turnips.

If you are using raw groundnuts then cook them with rice.

If you are good at pressure cooker handling, you can do all above steps in cooker itself. Just make sure not to burn the rice mixture.

Check out our other easy rice recipes:
Restaurant Style Jeera Rice, Coconut Rice, Pudina Rice / Mint Spiced Rice, Restaurant Style Jeera Rice, Khandeshi Khichdi, Moong Dal Khichdi / Moogachya Dalichi Khichdi, Restaurant Style Fried Rice

Did you find this post useful? Feel free to share your feedback in the comments area.

If you are interested to be notified for the new posts from us, then you can make use of the subscribe option available on the right side menu.

Help us to improve our search rating by recommending this post to Google using the Google plus button below.