🍚 Turkish rice pilaf
Pilav is the Turkish way of cooking rice: grains are first coated in butter, then simmered in stock until every grain is separate, fluffy and glossy. It has a mild, buttery, savoury taste. Pilav is served as a side with stews, kebabs and beans, and is a constant on Turkish home and restaurant tables alike.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g long-grain or baldo rice
- 30 g butter
- 600 ml hot chicken stock
- 1 tsp salt
Method
- Rinse the rice and soak it in warm salted water for 20 minutes, then drain.
- Melt the butter in a pot and stir the rice in it for 2–3 minutes until glossy.
- Pour in the hot stock and salt, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low for 15 minutes.
- Take off the heat, lay a clean towel under the lid and rest for 10 minutes before fluffing.
How to make it lighter
- Halve the butter — 1 tbsp butter ≈ 100 kcal.
- Keep the rice to about 150 g cooked per serving and fill the plate with salad or vegetables.
- Use a skimmed, low-fat stock.
History
Pilaf-style rice is cooked from Central Asia to the Balkans, and in Ottoman palace kitchens it was a prized dish with many variations. In Turkey today plain butter pilav is an everyday side dish, especially alongside kuru fasulye (bean stew).
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →