As Diwali begins, a celebration of Indian basmati rice

On most Sundays, SoCal-based South Asian shoppers head to stores like Pioneer Cash and Carry in Artesia for their weekly shopping. But this year, Diwali, the Festival of Lights, falls on Nov. 8, a Sunday, and preparations have been underway for weeks. Between cooking treats and planning feasts, many shoppers' grocery lists will have included basmati rice — and likely, a favored kind or brand.

Two decades ago, for South Asian families, finding Indian rice varieties in U.S. supermarkets — even in Indian grocery stores — was a luxury. Choices were limited: jasmine rice for weeknights, Indian basmati for feasts, or parboiled rice for idli batter.

Today, Indian basmati is big business and is available everywhere. Pioneer Cash and Carry stocks at least four varieties (not just brands) of white basmati rice, as well as brown basmati. In 2025, India exported 274,213 metric tons of basmati rice to the U.S. The Indian Rice Exporters Federation said high demand drove exports, not surplus.

I was delighted to find a source for bulk Basmati at my wholesale club, and when I started writing my cookbooks about Indian cuisine, I was never happy suggesting that my readers swap out basmati for conventional long-grain rice. It simply isn't the same.

SoCal gets its hands on Indian basmati first because the San Pedro Bay port complex is the West Coast gateway for agricultural imports. This helped make SoCal the headquarters of LT Foods Americas, the largest exporters of Indian basmati rice brand Royal Basmati, in Cypress.

Basmati rice is big business.

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Nandita Godbole

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LAist

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Unique characteristics

Basmati rice is prized for its sweet, floral, slightly nutty fragrance and its slender, pearly white and delicately long grain. I find the aroma of freshly cooked Basmati extremely comforting — I can almost imagine it hugging my insides.

Most folks don't realize that Indian Basmati has a GI (Geographic Indicator) tag, like Champagne in France, and farmers in protected regions along the Himalayan foothills take great pride in growing it, and reminding anyone who will listen. It's also grown in Odisha in eastern India.

Heavy rainfall and high humidity coax its unique characteristics. Its fragrance comes from 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, a compound found in some cheeses and fruits. This aroma gives basmati its name, meaning "the fragrant one" in Sanskrit. Exporters age the grain in silos for 12 to 24 months to preserve its fragrance during transport and storage before it reaches home kitchens. It also has a lower glycemic index than many other white rice varieties.

Basmati's characteristic aroma is one of the reasons it's become a major imported item from India to the U.S.

(

Nandita Godbole

/

LAist

)

Soft buttery aroma

I grew up cooking rice in the pressure cooker, measuring water the old-fashioned, 'one knuckle' way. But except for cooking raw grain directly in the microwave, any cooking method works well, and rice cookers take away any guess work.

It just needs a little nudge before cooking, like reviving the grain's memory. A quick rinse followed by soaking the grains in water for 20 to 30 minutes awakens basmati’s aroma and yields a longer cooked grain. When cooked with just enough water, it yields a fluffy, pillowy batch. It suits both sweet and savory dishes and a variety of world cuisines, emitting a soft buttery aroma even if no other spices are added.

My trick to making a simple pot of Basmati finger-licking good is to add a pinch of black cumin seeds at the start and a dollop of ghee while it is finishing. The lightly smoky, black cumin seeds compliments Basmati's floral notes, and ghee melts into all the right corners making every bite luscious.

We Basmati lovers pick our grains based on what we are cooking. The color, length and width of an uncooked basmati grain and its fragrance are critical. An ivory white grain that is at least half an inch long, with a marble-like sheen and soft fragrance, is a multipurpose basmati. A grain that is longer and skinnier is considered premium and often reserved for pulaos and biryanis where presentation also matters. Parboiled basmati rice is starchier and called sella basmati. It makes a creamier rice pudding. Brown basmati is an unpolished grain, and some consider it a healthier option.

At just above $1 per pound, a 20-pound bag of basmati is an underrated pantry upgrade.