Easy Coconut Lime Rice is a delicious side dish that pairs well with many Asian or Caribbean recipes. Its mild flavor, slight richness and hint of citrus cool your palate between spicy bites of Jamaican jerk, Thai or curry dishes. Plus, it’s a low-effort way to escape the “plain old rice” (or quinoa, or couscous…) rut.
Of course, because I’m an advocate of a whole-food, plant-based diet, this recipe calls for whole-grain brown rice. (We try really hard to avoid “white food” in our house, though vegan sushi definitely gets a pass.) This recipe is equally good with short grain rice or brown basmati if you want a lighter, fluffier version.
And as the name suggests, Easy Coconut Lime Rice couldn’t be simpler to make! You just swap coconut milk for some of the water when you cook your rice, then add lime zest before serving. Basic to gourmet in a hot-minute!
To keep this recipe relatively low in saturated fat, I like to use light (reduced fat) coconut milk. It has plenty of creamy coconut flavor and richness, without as much of the unhealthy saturated fat you find in whole coconut milk or coconut oil. (I realize there’s A LOT of debate out there about the healthfulness of coconut fat. I defer to NutritionFacts.org on this one—and pretty much all things nutrition.)
If you’re avoiding saturated fat completely, you could skip the coconut milk and add coconut extract to your rice instead. I haven’t tried this, but I imagine about 1/2 teaspoon would be enough. Just use the usual amount of water to cook your rice.
The next time you’ve got a curry simmering on the stove, a spicy tropical main dish on the menu—or your family says you’re ‘basic’ for making the same boring rice again—change things up with a side of yummy, easy coconut lime rice.
Easy Coconut Lime Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown rice (short grain or basmati)
- 1 13.5 ounce can light (low fat) coconut milk, shaken (see notes)
- Pinch sea salt
- Zest of 1 lime
- Optional: Garnish with lime wedges or slices
Instructions
- Add rice, coconut milk + water (see directions below) and salt to pot or rice cooker. Before cooking, stir to mix in any coconut cream (the thick, white part of the coconut milk). After the rice is cooked, stir in the lime zest and serve.
- For stovetop: To get the liquid amount right, simply add the coconut milk to a large (4 cup+) measuring cup, then add water until you reach 4 cups of total liquid. Place in a pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, usually about 35-40 minutes (check package for instructions specific to the rice you're using), or until the liquid is absorbed.For rice cooker: To get the liquid amount right, simply add the rice and the coconut milk to the rice cooker first, then add water until you reach the desired amount of total liquid.
I just made this – a double batch for a friend and a batch for us. First it smells wonderful! And the kids who exclaimed “we don’t like coconut!” LOVED it. It will be our new go-to rice dish with Asian-Caribbean food.
Thanks for sharing this, Kelly! I’m so glad the kiddos loved it. I’m curious, did they have an opinion about the lime zest? Take care, Elizabeth
Hello Elizabeth. I trying hard to go vegan. Because I walk the path of ovarian cancer. But I crave chocolate and sweets foods Any advise. I have been told all raw foods but that’s even more difficult.
Hi Freda, I’m definitely not a nutrition expert, but I personally eat a whole-food, plant-based diet, or I guess what you could call a really healthy vegan diet. I don’t know much about raw diets. I get all of my nutrition information from the website, NutritionFacts.org They have a lot of information about diet and diseases, including cancer. As for sweets, many vegan desserts don’t seem very healthy to me, but I suppose we’re meant to eat dessert in moderation. I have a healthy chocolate mint chia powder pudding recipe on the blog that doesn’t use any oil or refined sugar (the sweetness comes from dates) and that has a decent amount of fiber. Wishing you the all best, Elizabeth