Pol Bath
Sri Lankan Coconut Rice (Coconut Milk Rice)
Sri Lankan coconut rice goes by pol bath or coconut milk rice. It's fluffy, savoury rice simmered in coconut milk with pandan, lemongrass, curry leaves and a little onion. The coconut makes it rich and gently sweet, but it stays firmly savoury. It's the soft, comforting everyday rice that turns dhal, a sambol or a simple curry into a proper meal. Don't confuse it with kiribath, the firm rice cut into diamonds, or with a sweet coconut rice pudding. This one is fluffy, aromatic and meant to be eaten warm with curry.
Soft, fragrant rice simmered in coconut milk with pandan, lemongrass and curry leaves. It's the everyday comfort rice that makes a plate of curry feel like a treat.
- Total time
- 35 min
- 10 min prep · 25 min cook
- Serves
- 4 people
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Spice level
- Mild
- Country help
- USA · UK · AU · CA substitutes included
CeylonCooking
ceyloncooking.com/recipes/coconut-rice
Sri Lankan Coconut Rice (Pol Bath)
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Nutrition
Estimated values, per serving.
About This Dish
Pol bath simply means coconut rice in Sinhala. Pol is coconut, bath is rice, and that's exactly what you're doing: cooking ordinary rice in coconut milk instead of plain water. That one swap changes everything. The grains drink up the coconut richness as they steam, the aromatics perfume every forkful, and you end up with rice that's soft, fragrant and just rich enough to feel like a small luxury, even though it's humble weeknight food. You'll also see it called coconut milk rice. On most tables, it's just the rice of the day.
Unlike yellow rice or ghee rice, coconut rice isn't really a celebration dish. It's comfort food, the rice a cook reaches for when there's fresh coconut to use and time to let a pot steam gently on the stove. There's no turmeric colour, no parade of whole spices. The flavour comes almost entirely from the coconut milk and three quiet aromatics that grow in Sri Lankan gardens: pandan (rampe), lemongrass and curry leaves. That restraint is the point. The rice stays mild and rounded, so it sits happily under anything you serve with it.
It's easy to confuse coconut rice with kiribath. Both are rice and coconut milk, but they're different dishes with different jobs. Kiribath is cooked soft and stiff, pressed into a slab and cut into diamonds. You eat it at new beginnings with fiery lunu miris. Coconut rice stays fluffy and loose, the separate grains slicked with coconut, eaten warm and spooned straight onto the plate. And it's not the sweet coconut rice puddings found elsewhere either. There's no sugar here, just salt, so it reads as a savoury side, not a dessert.
Get it right and coconut rice is quietly addictive. The grains should be tender and separate, glossy with coconut, scented with the grassy, nutty note of pandan and lemongrass and the savoury back note of curry leaves. It's rich without being heavy, comforting without being plain. Honestly, it's good enough to eat with nothing more than a spoon of dhal and a sambol on a tired evening.
Coconut Milk and the Three Aromatics
Coconut milk is the whole reason this rice exists, and the kind you use matters. Thick, full-fat coconut milk is what makes the grains rich, glossy and faintly sweet, with that buttery coconut finish that plain water can never give. Traditionally the rice is cooked in two extractions. Thin coconut milk (the watery second press) goes in first to do most of the cooking, then a little thick coconut milk (the rich first press) is stirred in near the end so its fat coats the grains rather than boiling away. Fresh coconut milk is best, but full-fat tinned works beautifully. Just shake the tin, use the thinner part diluted with water for the first stage and the thick part to finish. Avoid light coconut milk; it strips out the richness that makes coconut rice worth making.
The flavour beyond the coconut comes from three aromatics, not a heavy spice mix. Pandan (rampe) is a long green leaf with a grassy, nutty, almost vanilla-like fragrance, and it is the leaf that gives Sri Lankan rice its scent. Lemongrass (sera) adds a fresh, citrusy lift that cuts the richness of the coconut and stops the rice from feeling cloying. Curry leaves bring a savoury, slightly nutty back note that grounds the dish and marks it as Sri Lankan, not generic coconut rice. Used together, gently, they scent the rice without turning it spicy or busy. A little sliced onion and salt round it all out, and that is all the seasoning a good pol bath needs.
What It Should Taste Like
Soft, fluffy, separate grains with a gloss from the coconut. It is rich and faintly sweet from the coconut milk, but the salt and onion pull it firmly back to savoury. Pandan and lemongrass give it a grassy, nutty fragrance over the savoury hum of curry leaves. Not heavy, and not sweet like a dessert.
Ingredients
This recipe makes 4 servings. Change the number and every amount below updates with it. Substitutes for hard-to-find items are in the sidebar.
The US button converts grams, millilitres and centimetres to ounces, cups and inches. Spoon measures stay exactly as they are.
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- Basmati or long-grain ricerinsed well2 cups
- Thin coconut milkor 1 cup thick coconut milk plus 1 cup water2 cups
- Thick coconut milkto finish½ cup
- Coconut oil1 tbsp
- Onionfinely sliced1 small
- Pandan (rampe)knotted or torn5 cm piece
- Lemongrassbruised1 stalk
- Curry leaves1 sprig
- Salt1 tsp
Method
Follow these 7 steps. Each one explains not just what to do, but why it matters.
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- 01
Rinse and Soak the Rice
Rinse the rice in cold water, swishing and draining it a few times, until the water runs nearly clear. Soak it for 10 minutes, then drain it well.
Look, rinsing is the step that decides whether you get fluffy coconut rice or a sticky clump. Rice grains are coated in loose surface starch. If you cook them in coconut milk without washing that off, the starch swells into a gluey paste and the grains stick together. A short soak then lets water into the grains so they cook through evenly and stay tender rather than splitting. That matters even more with coconut milk, because its fat slows down how quickly water gets in.
Tip: Drain the soaked rice really well before it goes into the pot. Extra clinging water throws off the coconut-milk-to-rice ratio and can leave the rice wet at the bottom.
- 02
Soften the Onion and Aromatics
Heat the coconut oil in a heavy pot. Add the sliced onion, pandan, bruised lemongrass and curry leaves, and cook gently until the onion softens and the whole kitchen smells fragrant.
Coconut rice has no big spice mix, so these three aromatics carry all the fragrance. Warming them in fat first is how you pull the most from them. The curry leaves hit the oil and crackle, releasing their savoury scent. The bruised lemongrass and torn pandan give up grassy, citrusy oils, and the onion turns soft and sweet. Bruising the lemongrass and knotting or tearing the pandan matters: a whole intact stalk or leaf barely flavours anything, a cracked, opened one scents the whole pot. Keep the heat moderate too, because you want the onion soft and translucent, not browned.
Tip: Knot the pandan leaf or tie the lemongrass into a loop. It gives off far more aroma than a straight piece, and it is easy to fish out at the end.
- 03
Toast the Rice
Add the drained rice and stir gently for a minute or two, until every grain is coated in the aromatic oil and looks glossy.
Toasting the rice in that flavoured oil firms the outside of each grain. That is what keeps the cooked rice separate and fluffy instead of clumping. It also coats every grain with onion, pandan, lemongrass and curry leaves before any liquid goes in, so the aroma runs through the finished rice rather than just sitting on top. Stir with a light folding motion so you coat the grains without breaking them. You will see them turn glossy and catch a faint toasty note when they are ready.
Tip: Use a wide, heavy-based pot. A thin pan will scorch the coconut milk on the bottom before the rice is done, and that wide base helps everything cook evenly.
- 04
Add the Thin Coconut Milk and Salt
Pour in the thin coconut milk (or the diluted coconut milk and water) and the salt. Give it one stir to settle the rice into an even layer, taste the liquid, and bring it to a gentle boil.
The first cook uses thin coconut milk, not the thick stuff. Thick coconut milk added now would scorch and split over the long simmer. Stir just once to spread the salt and level the rice. Over-stirring knocks starch off the grains you just toasted and undoes the fluffiness. Taste the liquid before it boils. It should taste pleasantly seasoned, a touch saltier than you want the rice, because the grains absorb and dilute it as they cook. The surface will look faintly creamy from the coconut. That's what you want.
Tip: Season the liquid, not the cooked rice. Salt stirred in now gets drawn evenly into every grain. Salt added at the end just sits on the surface.
- 05
Cover and Simmer
Once it boils, drop the heat to low, cover the pot with a tight lid, and cook gently for about 12-15 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is almost tender.
Once the lid is on, the rice cooks in trapped steam, and the biggest temptation is to peek. Resist it. Every time you lift the lid, steam escapes and the temperature drops. That's how you get grains that are crunchy on top and mushy at the base. Keep the heat genuinely low. A hard boil will scorch the coconut milk on the bottom before the grains are cooked through. When the time is up, the surface should be dimpled with little steam holes and most of the liquid gone.
Tip: If your lid is loose, lay a clean tea towel under it to trap the steam. A well-sealed pot is what gives you evenly cooked grains.
- 06
Stir in the Thick Coconut Milk
Pour the thick coconut milk over the rice, fork it through very gently, then cover again and cook on the lowest heat for 3-4 minutes until it's just absorbed.
This is the step that makes it coconut rice, not just rice cooked in coconut milk. Adding the thick coconut milk at the end, when the grains are almost done, means the fat coats and glosses the rice instead of splitting or boiling away over a long cook. Fold it through gently with a fork so you keep the grains whole. Then cover and give it just a few minutes for the coconut to soak in. The surface should look glossy and creamy. The rice should be tender and rich now, with a clear coconut finish.
Tip: Keep the heat at its very lowest for this final step. Thick coconut milk splits and turns grainy if you boil it hard.
- 07
Rest and Fluff
Take the pot off the heat and let it sit, still covered, for 10 minutes. Lift out the pandan, lemongrass and curry leaf stalks, then fluff gently with a fork and serve warm.
Resting is what finishes the rice, not an optional flourish. In those ten quiet minutes the residual steam settles through the pot, the grains firm up and let go of one another, and any slightly wet rice at the base sets properly. Fluff straight off the heat and you tear the still-fragile grains and turn it gummy. Lift out the spent aromatics first so no one bites a woody piece of lemongrass. Then run a fork through with a lifting, folding motion. The rice should fluff into soft, glossy individual grains scented with coconut and pandan.
Tip: Fluff with a fork, never a spoon. A spoon presses and smears the grains together. A fork lifts and separates them, so the rice stays light.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- A big mistake is cooking the whole dish in thick coconut milk. It scorches and splits over the long simmer. Cook in thin coconut milk and finish with the thick.
- Not rinsing the rice means surface starch turns it gluey and sticky instead of fluffy.
- Lifting the lid to peek while it steams lets out the steam the rice needs to cook evenly.
- Boiling too hard means the coconut milk catches and scorches on the base before the grains are tender.
- Skipping the rest before fluffing means the grains tear and the rice turns mushy.
- Using light or watered-down coconut milk throughout strips out the richness that defines the dish.
- Leaving the pandan and lemongrass whole and intact means they barely flavour the rice. Knot or bruise them first.
Serving Ideas
- With dhal curry and a sambol for a simple, comforting everyday plate.
- Under a mild chicken or cashew curry, letting the rich rice carry the gravy.
- Alongside a fiery curry, where the soft coconut rice cools and balances the heat.
- With pol sambol or lunu miris for a quick, satisfying meal.
- As the base for a rice and curry platter with a vegetable curry and a fresh sambol.
Building a whole plate around it? Start from our beginner rice and curry menu, which sets out what to cook alongside it and in what order.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Keeps for 3 days refrigerated in a sealed container and freezes for up to 1 month. Cool it quickly and refrigerate within a couple of hours, because cooked rice spoils faster than most leftovers. Reheat with a splash of water or a little extra coconut milk to loosen the grains, in the microwave or a covered pan, until piping hot all the way through.
Two Ways to Cook It
Make it in a rice cooker. Soften the onion and aromatics in a pan with the coconut oil, then tip everything into the rice cooker with the rinsed, drained rice, the thin coconut milk and the salt, and press cook. When it switches to warm, stir in the thick coconut milk, close the lid and leave it on warm for 10 minutes, then lift out the aromatics and fluff with a fork. It needs no pot-watching at all.
Use freshly pressed coconut milk, the watery second extraction for the cook and the rich first extraction to finish. Cook the rice in a heavy clay pot over a low flame so a faint coconut crust forms on the base. Use fresh pandan and lemongrass cut the same day and a sprig of just-picked curry leaves, and finish with a final spoon of thick coconut milk folded through off the heat for glossy, fragrant grains.
Lighter and Healthier Version
Coconut rice is naturally vegan and not heavy, but the coconut milk does add fat. A few small swaps keep the coconut flavour while trimming the richness, which is handy if you are serving it under several rich curries.
Lighten the Cooking Liquid
Use more water and less coconut milk for the first cook, so the rice still picks up coconut flavour but with noticeably less saturated fat.
Finish, Do Not Flood
Keep the thick coconut milk only for the final stir, where a small amount glosses the grains. You get the rich finish without cooking the whole pot in full-fat coconut milk.
Less Oil to Start
Soften the onion and aromatics in 1 teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pot instead of a tablespoon. The aromatics do the heavy lifting flavour-wise, so you're giving up very little.
Lower the Sodium
Cut the salt to half a teaspoon and let the coconut and aromatics do the work, especially if the curries you're serving alongside are already well-seasoned.
Add a Wholegrain Note
Use half brown long-grain rice for extra fibre. You'll need a little more liquid and a longer simmer so it cooks through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Coconut rice is rice cooked in coconut milk instead of plain water, so the grains come out rich, fragrant and just faintly sweet. The Sri Lankan version, pol bath, is a savoury side. You simmer fluffy rice in coconut milk with pandan, lemongrass, curry leaves, a little onion and salt, then eat it warm with curry and sambol. It's everyday comfort food, not a celebration dish, and it is not sweet.
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