🍚 Zarda
Zarda is a sweet rice dish from South Asia: basmati rice cooked with sugar, ghee, saffron and cardamom until glossy and golden-yellow, then studded with raisins and almonds. The grains stay separate, sweet and fragrant. It is served at weddings, festivals and family celebrations, often after a biryani or pulao.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g basmati rice
- 200 g sugar
- 3 tbsp ghee
- Pinch of saffron soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
- 4 cardamom pods, crushed
- 50 g raisins
- 40 g almonds, slivered
Method
- Soak the rice for 30 minutes, then boil until three-quarters cooked and drain.
- Warm the ghee with the cardamom and lightly toast the almonds and raisins.
- Add the rice, sugar and saffron water and fold gently.
- Cover tightly and cook on very low heat for 15 minutes until the syrup is absorbed and the rice is tender.
- Fluff gently and serve warm.
How to make it lighter
- Zarda is dense in sugar and ghee, so a few spoonfuls go a long way as dessert.
- Reduce the ghee to 1–2 tbsp; 1 tbsp ghee ≈ 120 kcal.
- Cut the sugar by a quarter and let the raisins add sweetness.
History
The name comes from the Persian word zard, 'yellow', a nod to the saffron colour, and the dish is often associated with Mughal-era cooking in the Indian subcontinent. It remains a celebratory dessert in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.
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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 →