Pilau Rice

on Oct 23, 2025

5 from 1 vote

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Pilau Rice is such a delicious, delicately fragranced dish that goes perfectly alongside your favourite homemade curries, but did you know you can make it from scratch really easily?

A large bowl filled with yellow Pilau Rice with a cinnamon stick and bay leaf in the top for decoration.

With just a few spices and stock, you can turn a regular bowl of boiled rice into perfect Pilau Rice.

I love to make this with homemade curries because it honestly makes SUCH a difference to the meal.

Lightly fragrant and totally delicious, you can also make this Indian-style side dish in a batch to freeze for another day’s quick in!

Why you’ll love this Easy Pilau Rice recipe

⭐️ So simple but big results

⭐️ Impressive side dish when cooking for friends

⭐️ Ideal for convenient batch cooking

A close up of yellow Pilau Rice with a spoon stuck into it to serve.

What is Pilau Rice?

Made with basmati rice, Pilau Rice is cooked with Indian style spices to give it its own delicate flavour. (For this recipe, we’re using cinnamon, cumin, cloves, turmeric, bay leaves and cardamom.)

A lot of flavour also comes from frying onion in butter for enough time for the onion to become golden. Well cooked = flavour for this recipe!

It goes without saying that this goes perfectly with lots of homemade curries, but it also works alongside grilled meat or mixed into a salad with a minty yoghurt dressing too.

Pilau Rice Ingredients

Ingredients laid out on a table for making Pilau Rice, including lots of spices, basmati rice, butter, onion, vegetable stock and bay leaves.

Basmati rice – Make sure you rinse this under cold running water in a sieve thoroughly before you start to cook.
Butter – This is for frying the onion in.
Onion – One, chopped.
Cinnamon – You can use a stick or ground for this recipe.
Cumin seeds – Make sure you use seeds rather than powder.
Cloves – Two for this recipe.
Cardamom pods – You will need 3 here.
Turmeric – This is what gives a lovely yellow colour (as well as flavour).
Bay leaves – Just 2 for this recipe.
Hot vegetable stock – I like Marigold Bouillon Powder for my veg stock.

Recipe Tip

All the spices collectively give the rice that classic Pilau flavour but, if you have to leave any out because you don’t have/like them, it will still work and still be delicious.

How to make Pilau Rice

White rice in a sieve over a glass bowl.

1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold water until the water runs clear as per the recipe below.

A pan filled with frying chopped onions.

2. Fry the onions in butter until soft and starting to turn golden.

A pan with rice inside and lots of spices and a cinnamon stick.

3. Add the spices and rice, give everything a good stir.

A pan of yellow rice with spices and hot stock being poured in.

4. Add the stock and cook the rice as per the recipe below.

Storing

Fridge Keep the rice in the fridge for 2 days before reheating thoroughly.

You can also freeze this rice into portions for another day. Defrost it in the fridge overnight, then reheat it thoroughly or microwave from frozen.

Always follow cooked rice food safety guidelines (i.e. do not leave it hanging about at room temperature, cool it very quickly and then reheat fully until piping hot before serving).