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The subtle, savory saffron flavor compliments rich flavors so well. This Saffron Rice recipe tastes buttery, even though it’s dairy free. It’s super easy to make for a large crowd, and takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish. It’s also very pretty!
Why This Saffron Rice Recipe Is So Good
It looks so pretty! Perfect for festive occasions
Easily spruce up regular basmati rice
Complements rich dishes really nicely
Lovely floral aroma
A wonderful buttery flavor with no butter
Ingredients
Basmati rice
Broth (chicken or vegetable)
Saffron
Salt
Olive oil
Onions
How To Make This Saffron Rice Recipe – Step By Step
Wash and drain the rice. In 4-qt pot, heat with olive oil over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add onions and fry for 3 minutes, until softened and light brown. Stir in rice, broth, saffron + soaking water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Once it starts boiling, immediately cover and turn to low heat.
Let the rice cook on low heat, undisturbed (no peeking!) for 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for another 5 minutes covered to finish steaming. Use a fork to fluff up the rice.
What Is Saffron?
Saffron is a plant. The dried stigmas (thread-like parts of the flower) are used to make saffron spice. It can take 75,000 saffron blossoms to produce a single pound of saffron spice. In foods, saffron is used as a spice, yellow food coloring, and as a flavoring agent.
Saffron Rice
This is a great rice recipe when plain basmati rice just won’t do. The saffron adds such a lovely, bright golden color to the rice, in contrast with the crimson saffron threads dispersed throughout. Saffron rice has a delicate, floral aroma that you can’t duplicate with any other spice. There are 3 secrets making this rice.
What’s The Best Saffron To Use?
Use good quality saffron. Don’t buy the cheap stuff. Everyone says that saffron is the world’s most expensive spice – true if you are counting ounce per ounce. But you use so little of it each time.
Here’s the key to buying saffron. The threads should be almost all bright red. If you see yellow, that means when the threads were harvested, they picked the flower portion that was STIGMA (a.k.a. expensive good stuff) and STIGMA (bad, tasteless shit). I purchase my saffron from www.saffron.com. For $40, I get the absolute best quality stuff and it will last me many, many scrumptious dishes.
Is Saffron Rice The Same As Yellow Rice?
Kind of! Yellow rice is essentially white rice, which has been colored by adding turmeric or saffron. In addition to giving the rice a bright color, these spices render it a piquant flavor. Yellow rice when colored with saffron has an earthy fragrant aroma and turmeric adds heat to it.
Variations For This Recipe
Here are some of my favorite combinations:
Cumin + a couple tablespoonfuls of tomato paste for Mexican rice – Dried oregano + basil (basically any dried leafy herb mixture).
Curry powder + raisins – A few dashes of soy sauce + sesame oil + minced green onions after the rice is done steaming.
Garlic powder + stir in chopped fresh parsley after rice is done steaming.
Any of the above + stir in thawed frozen peas after rice is done steaming.
Top Tips For This Saffron Rice Recipe
You should soak the threads in a little bit of hot water to really open up the spice and release its flavor. Use the threads+soaking water in your dish.
Fry onions before steaming the rice. It gives rice an earthy, caramelized onion flavor. You can substitute minced shallots for the onions.
Salt. Everything tastes better with salt. This rice comes alive when you add something salty to it. In this recipe, I used broth instead of water to steam the rice. Use fresh, canned or concentrated broth base. Now its time to be creative.
1pinchSaffron threads soaked in 2T hot water for 10 minutes
1tspSalt
2Tolive oil
½cupdiced onions
Instructions
Wash and drain the rice. In 4-qt pot, heat with olive oil over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add onions and fry for 3 minutes, until softened and light brown. Stir in rice, broth, saffron + soaking water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Once it starts boiling, immediately cover and turn to low heat.
Let the rice cook on low heat, undisturbed (no peeking!) for 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for another 5 minutes covered to finish steaming. Use a fork to fluff up the rice.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our
disclosure policy
for more information.
The subtle, savory saffron flavor compliments rich flavors so well. This Saffron Rice recipe tastes buttery, even though it’s dairy free. It’s super easy to make for a large crowd, and takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish. It’s also very pretty!
Why This Saffron Rice Recipe Is So Good
It looks so pretty! Perfect for festive occasions
Easily spruce up regular basmati rice
Complements rich dishes really nicely
Lovely floral aroma
A wonderful buttery flavor with no butter
Ingredients
Basmati rice
Broth (chicken or vegetable)
Saffron
Salt
Olive oil
Onions
How To Make This Saffron Rice Recipe – Step By Step
Wash and drain the rice. In 4-qt pot, heat with olive oil over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add onions and fry for 3 minutes, until softened and light brown. Stir in rice, broth, saffron + soaking water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Once it starts boiling, immediately cover and turn to low heat.
Let the rice cook on low heat, undisturbed (no peeking!) for 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for another 5 minutes covered to finish steaming. Use a fork to fluff up the rice.
What Is Saffron?
Saffron is a plant. The dried stigmas (thread-like parts of the flower) are used to make saffron spice. It can take 75,000 saffron blossoms to produce a single pound of saffron spice. In foods, saffron is used as a spice, yellow food coloring, and as a flavoring agent.
Saffron Rice
This is a great rice recipe when plain basmati rice just won’t do. The saffron adds such a lovely, bright golden color to the rice, in contrast with the crimson saffron threads dispersed throughout. Saffron rice has a delicate, floral aroma that you can’t duplicate with any other spice. There are 3 secrets making this rice.
What’s The Best Saffron To Use?
Use good quality saffron. Don’t buy the cheap stuff. Everyone says that saffron is the world’s most expensive spice – true if you are counting ounce per ounce. But you use so little of it each time.
Here’s the key to buying saffron. The threads should be almost all bright red. If you see yellow, that means when the threads were harvested, they picked the flower portion that was STIGMA (a.k.a. expensive good stuff) and STIGMA (bad, tasteless shit). I purchase my saffron from www.saffron.com. For $40, I get the absolute best quality stuff and it will last me many, many scrumptious dishes.
Is Saffron Rice The Same As Yellow Rice?
Kind of! Yellow rice is essentially white rice, which has been colored by adding turmeric or saffron. In addition to giving the rice a bright color, these spices render it a piquant flavor. Yellow rice when colored with saffron has an earthy fragrant aroma and turmeric adds heat to it.
Variations For This Recipe
Here are some of my favorite combinations:
Cumin + a couple tablespoonfuls of tomato paste for Mexican rice – Dried oregano + basil (basically any dried leafy herb mixture).
Curry powder + raisins – A few dashes of soy sauce + sesame oil + minced green onions after the rice is done steaming.
Garlic powder + stir in chopped fresh parsley after rice is done steaming.
Any of the above + stir in thawed frozen peas after rice is done steaming.
Top Tips For This Saffron Rice Recipe
You should soak the threads in a little bit of hot water to really open up the spice and release its flavor. Use the threads+soaking water in your dish.
Fry onions before steaming the rice. It gives rice an earthy, caramelized onion flavor. You can substitute minced shallots for the onions.
Salt. Everything tastes better with salt. This rice comes alive when you add something salty to it. In this recipe, I used broth instead of water to steam the rice. Use fresh, canned or concentrated broth base. Now its time to be creative.
1pinchSaffron threads soaked in 2T hot water for 10 minutes
1tspSalt
2Tolive oil
½cupdiced onions
Instructions
Wash and drain the rice. In 4-qt pot, heat with olive oil over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add onions and fry for 3 minutes, until softened and light brown. Stir in rice, broth, saffron + soaking water and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Once it starts boiling, immediately cover and turn to low heat.
Let the rice cook on low heat, undisturbed (no peeking!) for 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for another 5 minutes covered to finish steaming. Use a fork to fluff up the rice.
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our
disclosure policy
for more information.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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I made this tonight for a potluck- even after doubling the recipe it was gone before I got to the table! I’ll just have to assume it was a hit and make it again on my own someday, haha!
BTW: I think you mean STLYE on the latter?
————————-
“If you see yellow, that means when the threads were harvested, they picked the flower portion that was STIGMA (a.k.a. expensive good stuff) and STIGMA (bad, tasteless shit).”
I am so glad that I had the chance to stumble upon your site – this recipe looks outstanding and judging from your great pictures, it is. I am definitely going to give this a shot very soon. Thanks for sharing!
I always cannot resist the saffron rice offered at a Indian restaurant near my place. It’s buffet so I’m supposed to eat less rice and more dishes…but the saffron rice is so aromatic…I just could not resist.
Oh, now I’m feeling worse just by looking at this saffron rice you have whipped up.
Chicken Tikka Masala * Comfy Belly - […] recommend pairing this with basmati rice (like this recipe) or for a grain-free rice try my saffron cauliflower rice…
I’m Jaden Rae, former TV chef, three-time bestselling author, and creator of Steamy Test Kitchen, a 20+ year-old digital space where food, wellness, and personal evolution intersect. What began as a recipe site has grown into a space for storytelling, plant-based healing, and breaking the rules of modern online life. My work has been featured on the Today Show, Oprah, Martha Stewart, ABC’s Recipe Rehab, Tim Ferriss’ book, and more.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comment section! I always appreciate your feedback and I know other readers do, too!
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The pictures are gorgeous, love these food recipes which I am trying one tonight.
Super!! The only thing I did differently was to use ghee (already had some) instead of olive oil.
This will be my new go-to saffron rice, even though I do have a rice cooker. Won’t be using that for this recipe!
Thanks for a great recipe!
I made this tonight for a potluck- even after doubling the recipe it was gone before I got to the table! I’ll just have to assume it was a hit and make it again on my own someday, haha!
BTW: I think you mean STLYE on the latter?
————————-
“If you see yellow, that means when the threads were harvested, they picked the flower portion that was STIGMA (a.k.a. expensive good stuff) and STIGMA (bad, tasteless shit).”
So you do not throw the threads in with the rice? the soaked water will hae all of the flavor and color?
I am so glad that I had the chance to stumble upon your site – this recipe looks outstanding and judging from your great pictures, it is. I am definitely going to give this a shot very soon. Thanks for sharing!
looks delicious
T-time to get in the kitchen and make saffron rice then! 😛
I always cannot resist the saffron rice offered at a Indian restaurant near my place. It’s buffet so I’m supposed to eat less rice and more dishes…but the saffron rice is so aromatic…I just could not resist.
Oh, now I’m feeling worse just by looking at this saffron rice you have whipped up.