Jeera Bhaat or Zeera Chawal is an Indian and Pakistani dish consisting of rice and

cumin seed Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...

s. It is a very popular dish in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

and most commonly used as an everyday rice dish. The

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

term for cumin seeds is "jeera" or "zeera", with the latter also being used in

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, thus owing to the name of the dish. The ingredients used are rice, cumin seeds, vegetable oil, onions, salt and

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

leaves.

Etymology

The name ''Jeera Bhaat'' is a compound of two Hindi words: ''Jeera'' and ''Bhaat''. The word ''Jeera'' (or ''Jīrā'' in

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

) is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word ''Jīraka'', which means cumin seeds. The word ''Bhaat'' is derived from the Sanskrit word ''Bhakta'' meaning "boiled rice". The

Hindi-Urdu Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in North India and Pakistan as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken by the Deccani-speaking community in the Deccan plateau. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standa ...

name ''Zeera Chawal'' (ज़ीरा चावल / زیرہ چاول) is commonly used in northern India, with the word ''Zeera'' (meaning cumin) being derived from the same Sanskrit word and the word ''Chawal'' meaning rice.

Preparation

Cumin seeds are fried in hot oil. Long-grain

Basmati rice Basmati () is a variety of long, slender-grained aromatic rice which originates from the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the regions of Nepal, Punjab, Haryana, Sindh and many other states and provinces of India and Pakistan.onion ring Onion rings (also called French-fried onion rings) generally consist of a cross-sectional "ring" of onion dipped in batter and/or bread crumbs and then deep fried; a variant is made with onion paste. While typically served as a side dish, oni ...

s in some Indian hotels and restaurants.

References

External links

Zeera Chawal Recipe

Zeera Rice Recipe Video
{{Rice dishes Indian rice dishes North Indian cuisine Pakistani rice dishes Indo-Caribbean cuisine