The easiest rice recipe! This raw mango rice recipe is made with pre-cooked rice, green unripe mango, tempering spices and coconut. This South Indian style mango rice recipe is known as mangai sadam or Mamidikaya Pulihora in other regional languages.

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❤️ About This Mango Rice (Mangai Sadam)
Taste: Tangy, mild yet super flavorful from other spices and curry leaves.
Similar tangy rice preparations: Indian lemon rice, tamarind rice, tomato rice.
Popular summer dish: Green mangoes are in season at the beginning of the summer season. During that time mangai sadam is widely prepared in many households in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.
Have cooked rice ready? If yes then making raw mango rice process takes just 10 minutes.
This mango rice is sometimes a part of the menu at the Ugadi festival in place of lemon rice. It is prepared almost the same as Lemon rice. But here tanginess is coming from raw green mangoes instead of lemon juice.
Perfect for lunchbox or travel: This can be packed into kids’ or adults’ lunch box. It tastes good on its own, no side dish required.
🧾 Ingredient Notes
- Pre-cooked Rice:
- Here is the detailed post about how to cook basmati rice or Instant pot basmati rice.
- If you are cooking the rice fresh then spread the cooked rice on a large plate and let it cool down to room temperature. After that use into the recipe to avoid breaking the rice grains.
- This raw mango rice recipe is the perfect recipe to use leftover rice.
- Instead of rice, you can use quinoa, millets, brown rice, etc.
- Raw mangoes: Here unripe green mangoes that are grated and used in this mangai sadam recipe. In India, it is available in seasons only but here in the USA, you’ll find them year round.
- Peanuts: It adds a nice crunch to every bite. If making for festivals or guests then you can add some cashews along with peanuts.
- Curry leaves: A must-add ingredient. It adds a nice aroma to this mango rice recipe. Plus, curry leaves add a nice, unique flavor to the dish.
- Coconut: Use any fresh or desiccated coconut.
👩🍳 How To Make Raw Mango Rice Recipe?
1) Wash and peel the raw mango. Grate it using a box grater and measure it to 1 cup. Also prep other ingredients and keep them handy. because we need them one by one quickly.
2) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds. Let them pop
3) Then add chana dal and peanuts. Make sure that heat is medium-low. If it is high then dal gets brown quickly and will stay hard like a rock and raw.
4) Roast them by stirring constantly until they are light brown in color. Add urad dal and roast it until light brown.
5) Add dry red chili and curry leaves and saute for 15 seconds. Add green chili and ginger paste, and saute for 30 seconds or until the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
6) Add turmeric powder and hing.
7) Immediately add grated mango and salt. Mix it and cook it for 3-5 minutes or until the mango gets cooked and tender.
8) Add coconut.
9) Mix and saute for 2 minutes.
10) Add cooked, cooled rice.
11) Mix it very gently so rice grains don’t break. Mix until everything gets incorporated well and the rice gets yellow color. Cook it for 2-3 minutes or until rice gets heated through. Then turn off the stove and it is ready to serve.
💭 Expert Tips For BEST Mango Rice
- Let the freshly cooked rice cool down before adding it to the recipe to avoid breaking rice grains. If hot rice is mixed with tempering then rice grains will break and become mushy.
- Try to use raw and sour green mangoes so it adds a nice tang to the magai sadam dish.
- Taste the mango first, if it’s too sour then reduce the amount in the recipe. If it’s not sour enough then you may need to add some lemon juice.
- Roast chana dal on medium-low heat otherwise it gets darker quickly and stays raw. The same goes for urad dal.
Check Out Other Raw Mango Recipes
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📋 Recipe Card
Raw Mango Rice Recipe (Mangai Sadam)
Ingredients
- 2 cups Cooked rice
- 1 ½ tablespoons Oil
- ½ teaspoon Mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon Chana dal (split bengal gram)
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal (split, skinless black gram)
- 1 tablespoon Peanuts
- 5-6 Curry leaves
- 1 Dried red chilies broken in 2 pieces, seeds and stem removed
- ½ teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
- 2 Green chilies slit
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- a pinch Hing (Asafoetida) Hing
- 1 medium or 1 cup Raw mango (Unripe mango) grated
- 2 tablespoons Coconut fresh or frozen or desiccated
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Here is the detailed post about how to cook basmati rice. Spread the cooked rice on a large plate or tray and let it cool down. Or use leftover rice.
- Wash and peel the raw mango. Grate it using a box grater and measure it to 1 cup.
- Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds. Let them pop
- Then add chana dal and peanuts. Make sure that heat is medium-low. If it is high then dal gets brown quickly and will stay hard like a rock and raw. Roast them by stirring constantly until they are light brown in color.
- Add urad dal and roast it until light brown.
- Add dry red chili and curry leaves and saute for 15 seconds.
- Add green chili and ginger paste, and saute for 30 seconds or until the raw aroma of ginger goes away.
- Add turmeric powder and hing.
- Immediately add grated mango and salt. Mix it and cook it for 3-5 minutes or until the mango gets cooked and tender.
- Add coconut. Mix and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add cooked, cooled rice. Mix it very gently so rice grains don’t break. Mix until everything gets incorporated well and the rice gets yellow color.
- Cook it for 2-3 minutes or until the rice gets heated through.
Notes
- Try to use raw and sour green mangoes so it adds a nice tang to the magai sadam dish.
- Taste the mango first, if it’s too sour then reduce the amount in the recipe. If it’s not sour enough then you may need to add some lemon juice.
- Roast chana dal on medium-low heat otherwise it gets darker quickly and stays raw. The same goes for urad dal.
Yaakov
Hi. Thanks for the recipe, like all Indian dishes, it looks delicious.
However, I live in the United States and Indian spices are not readily available. Can you help with substitutes?
Kanan Patel
I live in the USA as well. You can find all the Indian spices in any Indian grocery stores.
If Indian grocery stores are not nearby where you live, then you can find them on amazon (of course with higher price than store).
Please let me know if you are looking for any specific spice substitute, so I can help.