Lime Rice Without Cilantro

Lime rice without cilantro is so easy to make using lime juice and coconut milk for flavoring. Instead of cilantro, here you’ll use fresh basil, but you can omit the basil altogether for a delicious lime rice with coconut that’s still similar to what they serve at Chipotle.

Cilantro is an herb that’s not for everyone! It’s known for being beloved by some, and off-putting for others. If you don’t enjoy the flavor of cilantro, it’s easy to tweak recipes to avoid using it. Basil is an herb with bright flavors that’s an easy substitute in dishes with coconut rice.

You can use lime rice with no cilantro for a number of things, from a simple side dish to a base for chicken curry dish. Essentially, you can use lime rice wherever you use regular rice and you’ll get an extra dose of flavor!

Main Ingredients

The main ingredients you’ll need to make coconut lime rice with no cilantro are:

• 1½ cups long grain white rice
• 1 cup chicken broth (or water)
• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk (13.6 oz)
• 1 lime (to use both the juice and zest)
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil (optional)

How to Make Lime Rice With No Cilantro

Making coconut lime rice is so easy. You’re essentially going to make it just like you would normal rice, by allowing the rice to simmer long enough for the water to absorb and using the right proportions of rice to liquid.

If you have a rice cooker, you can simply use that to make this lime rice recipe.

If you don’t have a rice cooker, just bring the liquid (coconut water and chicken broth) to a boil in a sauce pan, add the rice and allow it to simmer with a lid for about 15 minutes. Let it rest five minutes the fluff it with a fork.

So let’s back up and start this lime rice recipe with no cilantro using the rice cooker. First add one and a half cups of rice and one can of coconut milk to a rice cooker. Then add one cup of chicken broth.

Turn the rice cooker on, and allow the rice to cook until it’s complete. Let it rest about five minutes and then fluff it with a fork just as you would if you cooked the rice in the sauce pan.

Then add a bit of lime juice, lime zest, and chopped basil to the rice and stir to combine. Garnish with lime slices and basil. Serve warm.

That’s really it! Lime rice is that easy to make!

Looking for a tasty side dish recipe? Try a Chopped Caprese Salad!

A Few Prep Tips

Here are a few little things to know along the way to making your delicious, coconut lime rice.

Coconut Milk for Rice

First, if you’ve never used coconut milk before, you may be surprised to see that it is probably separated. The fatty part of the coconut milk typically rises to the top, and the liquid is at the bottom.

There are a couple ways you can tackle this. First, you can simply scrape everything into a bowl and gently warm it in the microwave for about 20 seconds. And then stir. The coconut milk should unify again.

Some people like to open their coconut milk from the bottom of the can using a can opener. That way the liquid pours out easily, and then you can scrape out the fatty part of the coconut milk.

For some recipes, you can simply add the chunky coconut milk and it will combine as it heats. But in this case, it’s better to unify it in the beginning because once the rice starts cooking, you don’t want to lift the lid to stir it.

Rinsing rice

Before you add the rice to the rice cooker or pot, rinse it in a wire mesh. Wash the rice well until the water runs fairly clean. (Although it never will be perfectly clean.)

This helps remove some of the starch from the rice.

Chopping basil

Fresh basil is the perfect herb substitute in a lime rice recipe where you don’t want to use any cilantro

You can chop your basil into fine pieces any way you’d like. But one common trick is to layer the leaves on top of each other, and then roll them up like a cigar.

Then you can chop down the cigar and you’ll get beautiful ribbons of basil.

Zesting and Juicing Lime for Rice

Use a grater to zest one lime to yield about ½ tablespoon of lime zest.

Then cut the lime in half and squeeze the lime juice into a small bowl. The flavors from one lime inside and out are the perfect citrus proportion for coconut lime rice.

Also try:

• Tomato and Onion Pie
• Parmesan Zucchini Bites
• Grilled Cheese with Pear