The One-Pot Rice Dish That Tastes Like a Greek Vacation

Q: What Rice Should I Use? Can I Use Brown Rice?

I recommend that you prepare your Lemon Rice Pilaf with long grain white rice for best results. My personal favorite choice when cooking most rice recipes is basmati rice - not only is it a staple in Indian cuisines, which is my expertise, but basmati rice is widely used in other cuisines too. If you have other long grain rice variations such as white jasmine rice, then go ahead! I just like how each grain of basmati rice separates and becomes super fluffy when you’ve cooked it properly, whereas shorter grain rices tend to get a little stickier. With regard to using brown rice to prepare this Greek rice recipe, you technically can, but keep in mind that it will have a nuttier flavor. Furthermore, you’ll have to add more broth and cook the rice for longer. I’ve never made this recipe with brown rice, so I can’t give any specific instructions on how to modify. If you do try it with brown rice yourself, then be sure to comment below any information you have on how to achieve the perfect pilaf with brown rice!

Q: Is Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf Gluten-Free?

Rice is a staple gluten-free ingredient, and the only other ingredients we’ve got here are vegetable broth, lemon juice, salt and herbs. Make sure you’re working an environment where there is no cross-contamination with gluten and you’ll be fine!

Q: Is This Greek Pilaf Vegan?

Vegans can definitely enjoy this Greek Rice Pilaf recipe! You may notice that some rice pilaf recipes are sautéed with butter, but we’ll be using olive oil. Using any plant-based cooking oil such as coconut oil will keep the recipe vegan.

Q: How to Reheat Greek Rice

Have your Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf in microwave-safe container, bowl or plate. Depending on how much rice you’re reheating, one to two minutes should be long enough. Make sure that you stir occasionally to ensure that the tomato rice is entirely warmed through.

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12K subscribers · bright, zesty rice with lemon, garlic and fresh dill

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I don’t know anyone who doesn’t appreciate a simple Steamed White Rice to go with your favorite meals. However, if you’re like me and love to recreate your restaurant favorites at home (and I give more details on how going out to eat can inspire you in the kitchen in my free motivational guide, Make Cooking Fun!), then you’ll want to enhance your simple rice a little more! For as long as I can remember, one of my all-time favorite meals when I needed something quick but still fresh and healthy-ish would be Jimmy the Greek. I always got chicken souvlaki skewers with potatoes and rice. I could eat this all day long, I swear!

You’ll definitely want to have this Greek Rice Pilaf as a new staple to take your kitchen on a trip to Greece as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can get started on your cooking journey for free by signing up to my newsletter, and all of my new recipes will be sent straight to your inbox!

To get all the details on how to perfect your lemon pilaf that will taste just like Jimmy the Greek’s lemon rice - or lemon rice from any Greek place you like - then check out the video! It would also mean a lot to me if you would please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven’t already and be sure to press the bell button so you’re notified when all of my new video recipes go live! Let’s get cooking!

What Is Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf?

A pilaf, also referred to as a pilau, is a recipe that involves cooking rice or other grains, such as orzo, quinoa or barley, with broth and spices. Many cuisines in the Mediterranean have their own pilaf variations, and Greek cuisine is one of them! You’ll see that this Greek rice pilaf is very simple, but others can be very intricate with ground and whole spices and they may also include animal proteins such as chicken or beef, or plant-based proteins such as lentils or chickpeas.

What Rice Should I Use? Can I Use Brown Rice?▼

I recommend that you prepare your Lemon Rice Pilaf with long grain white rice for best results. My personal favorite choice when cooking most rice recipes is basmati rice - not only is it a staple in Indian cuisines, which is my expertise, but basmati rice is widely used in other cuisines too. If you have other long grain rice variations such as white jasmine rice, then go ahead! I just like how each grain of basmati rice separates and becomes super fluffy when you’ve cooked it properly, whereas shorter grain rices tend to get a little stickier.

With regard to using brown rice to prepare this Greek rice recipe, you technically can, but keep in mind that it will have a nuttier flavor. Furthermore, you’ll have to add more broth and cook the rice for longer. I’ve never made this recipe with brown rice, so I can’t give any specific instructions on how to modify. If you do try it with brown rice yourself, then be sure to comment below any information you have on how to achieve the perfect pilaf with brown rice!

Greek lemon rice pilaf served on a dark plate, garnished with fresh dill sprigs.

Is Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf Gluten-Free?▼

Rice is a staple gluten-free ingredient, and the only other ingredients we’ve got here are vegetable broth, lemon juice, salt and herbs. Make sure you’re working an environment where there is no cross-contamination with gluten and you’ll be fine!

Is This Greek Pilaf Vegan?▼

Vegans can definitely enjoy this Greek Rice Pilaf recipe! You may notice that some rice pilaf recipes are sautéed with butter, but we’ll be using olive oil. Using any plant-based cooking oil such as coconut oil will keep the recipe vegan.

Fluffy Greek lemon rice pilaf on a dark plate, garnished with fresh dill, ready to serve.

Why You’ll Love This Greek Lemon Pilaf!

One-pan recipe
Easy to make
Speedy recipe
Minimal, staple household ingredients
Serves a crowd
Fits plenty of dietary needs
Versatile and customizable - check out ideas below!

Tools Needed

Ingredients for Greek Lemon Rice

You can see the complete ingredient list with their measurements in addition to saving the recipe for later by checking out the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD at the bottom of this post. You can also scale the recipe based on how much rice you want to make - whether you want just two portions or a big batch for the week, all ingredient quantities automatically adjust for you!

Rice: I’ll be using basmati rice, but any long grain white rice should work.
Water: Needed to cook the rice.
Garlic: A couple of chopped garlic cloves.
Olive oil: To sauté the garlic and rice.
Broth: To ensure that the recipe is vegetarian and vegan, use vegetable broth. However, if all you have on hand is chicken broth and vegetarians won’t be eating this rice, then that will work too.
Salt: Always to taste!
Fresh dill: That’s what I’m using here, but parsley is also an excellent option to add fresh flavors.
Lemon: Whatever is already on hand. You could use bottled juice if you want, but I wanted to add the whole lemon for garnish.

How to Make Lemon Rice Pilaf

Rinse 1 cup rice with cold water until water runs clear.

Rinsing white rice in a metal colander under running water until clear.

Heat a pot or saucepan on medium heat and add the olive oil.

Olive oil heating in a saucepan on a stovetop burner, ready for sautéing garlic and rice.

Once hot, add garlic and saute for thirty seconds to one minute.

Minced garlic sautéing in olive oil in a stainless steel pot on the stovetop.

Garlic sautéing in olive oil in a saucepan on a stovetop, ready for rice to be added.

Add washed rice to the pot and sauté for 1-2 minutes while stirring often.

Rice being poured from a colander into a black pot with sautéed garlic on a stovetop.

Stirring uncooked rice in a black pot on a stovetop during the sautéing step of Greek lemon rice pilaf.

Add 1 1/2 Cups of broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Then, lower heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is cooked and fluffy.

Pouring broth and lemon juice into a pot with sautéed rice on a stovetop.

Squeezing fresh lemon juice into a pot of sautéed rice and broth for Greek lemon rice pilaf.

Covered pot with white lid simmering rice pilaf on stovetop during cooking process.

Once the rice is cooked, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before stirring or serving. Then, add fresh dill or parsley and fluff the rice with a fork.

Fluffy cooked Greek lemon rice pilaf in a dark pot, ready to be fluffed and garnished.

Fluffy Greek lemon rice pilaf in a pot being fluffed with a fork after resting.

Enjoy!

Fluffy Greek lemon rice pilaf on a dark plate, garnished with fresh dill, being fluffed with a fork.

Tips for Perfect Fluffy Greek Lemon Rice

A pot with a heavy bottom and tight fitting lid will help maintain the heat and steam inside the pot to cook the rice well and quickly. Alternatively, a side plate that fits your pot well can be a nifty solution to keep the steam in. That’s what I use.
Sautéing the rice with the garlic and oil helps to incorporate more flavor into the grains. Using vegetable and chicken broth adds even more flavor and fragrance to the rice.
Once the rice has absorbed all of the water, it is key to leave the pot of rice off the heat with a tight lid to ensure the rice can finish cooking and become tender throughout. Once cooked well, rice grains should point upwards and be fluffy and tender.
Rice usually needs some form of seasoning, a dash of salt and pepper should be enough. Taste and adjust for seasoning after the rice is done steaming.

Variations of Greek Rice Pilaf

Proteins

Chicken
Beef
Pork
Shrimp
Tofu

Vegetables

Peas
Carrots
Onions
Celery
Bell pepper
Mushrooms

How to Serve Lemon Rice

The best way to serve your Greek Lemon Rice is as part of a wonderful Greek feast! As you’ve seen in the photos, I’ve paired it with my Grilled Souvlaki Chicken Skewers, Lemon Potatoes, and Authentic Tzatziki Sauce. This combination truly is one of my favorites!

However, there are no rules saying that you have to limit your serving of Greek Lemon Rice to Mediterranean recipes! When I’ve used up my leftovers, I’ve mixed and matched this with several other recipes. Believe it or not, this would go well with many Indian dishes, such as Punjabi Lobia (black eyed peas curry), Mixed Dal (lentils), or even Chicken Tikka Masala. You can use this as a base for an egg fried rice, either Indian-style or a classic Chinese Egg Fried Rice to switch things up! Pretty much any poultry will work well with your Greek Lemon Rice, such as Italian Grilled Chicken or Coq au Vin; beef such as Jamaican Pepper Steak, or with seafood, such as Filipino Ginataang Salmon or Cajun Shrimp.

Greek lemon rice pilaf served with grilled souvlaki skewers, roasted potatoes, and tzatziki sauce.

Storing Lemon Rice Pilaf

You’ll see that this Greek Lemon Rice Recipe! As you can see, you can enjoy it with pretty much any recipe or add in mixes as your heart desires! As I’ve listed above, this rice dish can really be served with anything! All you need to do is store the rice in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days due to the garlic in the rice.

Greek lemon rice pilaf served on a dark plate, garnished with fresh dill

How to Reheat Greek Rice▼

Have your Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf in microwave-safe container, bowl or plate. Depending on how much rice you’re reheating, one to two minutes should be long enough. Make sure that you stir occasionally to ensure that the tomato rice is entirely warmed through.

A Pilaf With No Butter and No Onion

Most pilaf recipes open by melting unsalted butter and softening a chopped onion. This one does neither. The fat is two teaspoons of olive oil, and the only aromatic in the whole pot is two cloves of fresh garlic, sauteed for thirty seconds to a minute before the rice goes in. No red onion, no shallot, no celery. That restraint is the point: with this little in the pan, the lemon and the broth have nowhere to hide, and the rice tastes clean rather than muddled.

There is no oregano either, and no dried Greek herb blend, which surprises people who expect anything labelled Greek to arrive covered in it. There is no turmeric, so the pale gold color comes from the broth and not from a spice. And it is fresh lemon juice only, squeezed from half a small lemon, with no lemon zest at all. Zest would push it bitter over a twenty minute simmer, and the juice going in with the liquid is enough. The pot also never goes above medium heat, so if a recipe habit has you reaching for medium-high heat to get things moving, resist it here.

The Rice, the Broth and What Is in a Serving

Use basmati. It is a long grain rice and it stays separate and fluffy, which is exactly what a pilaf needs. Short grain rice has far more surface starch and will give you something closer to a risotto. Jasmine is the closest swap, a little more floral, and plain long-grain white rice works too with less aroma. Whichever you use, rinse the cup of rice under cold water until the water runs clear. That is not a fussy step. It washes off the loose starches that otherwise glue the grains together, and rinsed rice is the single biggest difference between fluffy and gummy.

The liquid is one and a half cups of vegetable broth, which keeps the dish vegetarian. Chicken broth makes it richer if that does not matter to you, and water with a chicken bouillon cube is the pantry staple version when you have no stock at all. Broth is also where nearly all the sodium in this dish comes from, so a low sodium carton is the easiest lever you have. Nutritionally this is a carbohydrate-forward side rather than a protein or fiber one, and with only two teaspoons of oil across four servings it is very low in fat. Pair it with something that brings the protein.

Two finishing notes. Let the rice sit covered for at least ten minutes after it is cooked before you touch it, because that rest is what lets the excess moisture redistribute through the pot; stir it early and you tear the grains. Then fluff with a fork and add your fresh herbs. Dill is the garnish in the ingredient list and gives it the more distinctly Greek note; parsley is the milder swap if dill is not your thing. It is a natural side dish next to Greek chicken, grilled fish or roasted veggies, and leftovers reheat well in the microwave with a splash of water and a damp paper towel over the bowl.

Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!

Recipe by Anadi Misra

Experience Greece with this Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf

Experience the flavors of Greece with this easy Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf. A bright, zesty one-pot vegetarian dish ready in no time. Simple ingredients, big Mediterranean flavor.

One-pot

5.0 · 3 ratings

Leave a review

Saved to your collection

5 min

Prep

20 min

Cook

10 min

Rest

35 min

Total

servings

makes 3 cups

easy

Level

Ingredients

Tap any quantity to scale

(10 ml) olive oilShop →
(190 g) basmati riceShop →
(360 ml) vegetable brothShop →
lemon juice(freshly squeezed)
garlic
fresh dill(for garnish)
salt(to taste)Shop →

Instructions

1
Rinse 1 cup rice with cold water until water runs clear.
Rinse 1 cup rice with cold water until water runs clear.
2
Heat a pot or saucepan on medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add garlic and saute for thirty seconds to one minute. Add washed rice to the pot and sauté for 1-2 minutes while stirring often.
Heat a pot or saucepan on medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add garlic and saute for thirty seconds to one minute. Add washed rice to the pot and sauté for 1-2 minutes while stirring often.
3
Add 1 ½ cups of broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Then, lower heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is cooked and fluffy.
Add 1 ½ cups of broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Then, lower heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is cooked and fluffy.
4
Once the rice is cooked, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before stirring or serving. Then, add fresh dill or parsley and fluff the rice with a fork.
Once the rice is cooked, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before stirring or serving. Then, add fresh dill or parsley and fluff the rice with a fork.

Nutrition per serving

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Tested & written in Anadi’s kitchen

Recipe history

April 16, 2026 — Reworked and refreshed for the 2026 relaunch — new photography, restructured and standardized ingredients & instructions.

Filed under

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This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy

Watch the recipe

Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · bright, zesty rice with lemon, garlic and fresh dill

Watch the full method on YouTube →

What Is Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf?

What Rice Should I Use? Can I Use Brown Rice?▼

Is Greek Lemon Rice Pilaf Gluten-Free?▼

Is This Greek Pilaf Vegan?▼

Why You’ll Love This Greek Lemon Pilaf!

One-pan recipe
Easy to make
Speedy recipe
Minimal, staple household ingredients
Serves a crowd
Fits plenty of dietary needs
Versatile and customizable - check out ideas below!

Tools Needed

Ingredients for Greek Lemon Rice

Rice: I’ll be using basmati rice, but any long grain white rice should work.
Water: Needed to cook the rice.
Garlic: A couple of chopped garlic cloves.
Olive oil: To sauté the garlic and rice.
Broth: To ensure that the recipe is vegetarian and vegan, use vegetable broth. However, if all you have on hand is chicken broth and vegetarians won’t be eating this rice, then that will work too.
Salt: Always to taste!
Fresh dill: That’s what I’m using here, but parsley is also an excellent option to add fresh flavors.
Lemon: Whatever is already on hand. You could use bottled juice if you want, but I wanted to add the whole lemon for garnish.

How to Make Lemon Rice Pilaf

Rinse 1 cup rice with cold water until water runs clear.

Heat a pot or saucepan on medium heat and add the olive oil.

Once hot, add garlic and saute for thirty seconds to one minute.

Add washed rice to the pot and sauté for 1-2 minutes while stirring often.

Add 1 1/2 Cups of broth and the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Then, lower heat to low, cover and simmer until the rice is cooked and fluffy.

Once the rice is cooked, let it sit for at least 10 minutes before stirring or serving. Then, add fresh dill or parsley and fluff the rice with a fork.

Enjoy!

Tips for Perfect Fluffy Greek Lemon Rice

A pot with a heavy bottom and tight fitting lid will help maintain the heat and steam inside the pot to cook the rice well and quickly. Alternatively, a side plate that fits your pot well can be a nifty solution to keep the steam in. That’s what I use.
Sautéing the rice with the garlic and oil helps to incorporate more flavor into the grains. Using vegetable and chicken broth adds even more flavor and fragrance to the rice.
Once the rice has absorbed all of the water, it is key to leave the pot of rice off the heat with a tight lid to ensure the rice can finish cooking and become tender throughout. Once cooked well, rice grains should point upwards and be fluffy and tender.
Rice usually needs some form of seasoning, a dash of salt and pepper should be enough. Taste and adjust for seasoning after the rice is done steaming.