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You are here: Home / All Recipes / Nasi Kerabu (Malaysian Butterfly Pea Rice)

Nasi Kerabu (Malaysian Butterfly Pea Rice)

Connie Veneracion
Rice cooked with butterfly pea brew results in blue rice. It's called nasi kerabu in Malaysia. The rice can be a homogenous blue but you may give it a marbled look just for fun.
Nasi kerabu is traditionally served with fried (or grilled) meat, chicken or fish, and assortment of herbs and vegetables, and crackers.
The recipe below has instructions for cooking the blue rice only. What to serve it with is up to you.
Nasi Kerabu (Malaysian Butterfly Pea Rice)
Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 15 mins
Soaking time 30 mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Malaysian
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups jasmine rice
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 1 stalk lemongrass, lightly pounded
  • 1 pair kaffir lime leaves, (see notes after the recipe)
  • 6 dried butterfly pea flowers

Instructions
 

  • Rinse the jasmine rice several times until the water is no longer cloudy.
  • Drain the rinsed rice and place in the rice cooker and pour in 4 ½ cups of water. Leave to soak for 30 minutes.
  • Stir the salt into the rice.
  • Add the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves to the rice, and switch on the rice cooker.
  • Place the butterfly pea flowers in a cup and pour in half a cup of hot water. Leave to steep.
  • When the rice is done, uncover the cooker and rake through the grains with a fork to fluff up the rice.
  • Strain the butterfly pea flower brew and drizzle over the cooked rice. Stir lightly.
  • Replace the rice cooker lid and leave the rice to continue cooking in the residual heat (no, don't turn on the rice cooker again) for another five minutes.

Notes

Adding lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and salt is optional. But since butterfly pea brew does not really add any distinctive taste or aroma to the rice, throwing in aromatic ingredients seemed like a good idea.
For a homogenous blue nasi kerabu, stir the butterfly pea flower brew into the rice before switching on the rice cooker.
Nasi Kerabu (Malaysian Butterfly Pea Rice) With Omelette
Keyword Butterfly Pea Flower, Rice
Looking for Filipino food?Visit CASA Veneracion for modern twists on favorite classics!

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About Connie Veneracion

To feed my obsession with Asian cultures, I created Devour Asia. Why Asia? It goes back to my childhood through early adulthood. Chinese food, Samurai and Voltes V, Asian Civilizations and World History. Read more.

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