Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Lamprais
Rice and a mixed curry baked together in a banana leaf, a treasured Dutch Burgher dish of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan · advanced · serves 4
prep 60 min · cook 40 min
~694 cal · 43g protein · 103g carbs · 12g fat · 10g fiber · 30g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lamprais is a jewel of Sri Lanka's Dutch Burgher community, its name derived from the Dutch lomprijst, a packet of rice. It is a labour-intensive dish reserved for special occasions, a whole meal assembled and then baked together in a banana leaf so the flavours meld.
Rice cooked in is packed into a banana leaf alongside a mixed meat curry, a fiery seeni sambol of caramelised onions, a fried ash-, and a fish cutlet or frikkadel meatball. The whole parcel is folded and baked, letting the components steam into one another. Unwrapping the fragrant leaf at the table to release the steam is half the pleasure.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 cups short-grain rice, fried in with onion and spices then cooked in meat
1 lb mixed meat (chicken and beef), curried
3 onions, for seeni sambol
1 ash or , sliced
4 eggs, boiled
8 frikkadels (spiced beef or pork meatballs, crumbed and fried)
4 small balls prawn blachan ( shrimp sambol)
2 cups brinjal (eggplant) moju: deep-fried eggplant with vinegar and spices
3 tbsp curry spices and chili
4 banana leaves
Instructions
1
Cook the mixed meat into a dry, spiced curry, caramelise the onions with chili and a little sugar into seeni sambol, fry the crumbed frikkadels, and make the brinjal moju by deep-frying the eggplant and dressing it with vinegar and spices.
✎ Chef’s note
The Dutch Burgher original is specific: rice fried in ghee and cooked in meat stock, a curry of three to five meats, two frikkadels, prawn blachan, seeni sambol and brinjal moju. The deep-fried boiled egg that so often appears now is a modern addition, not part of the old recipe.
2
Fry the sliced plantain until golden.
3
On a softened banana leaf, mound the stock-cooked rice with a portion of curry, two frikkadels, a ball of blachan, seeni sambol, brinjal moju, plantain, and egg if using.
✎ Chef’s note
Warm the banana leaf over a flame first so it turns supple and folds into a tight parcel without splitting. The leaf is not just wrapping: its waxy surface seals the parcel and its chlorophyll perfumes the rice, which is why lamprais tastes better warmed through the next day.
4
Fold into a sealed parcel and bake at 350F (180C) for 20 minutes, then open at the table.
Sri Lankan Dutch Burgher tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Western Province (Colombo). Rice and curry is a plural. One plate carries a mound of rice ringed by five or six separate curries and a sambol, each cooked a different way, some in coconut milk and some dry-roasted, so that no two taste alike. The curry powder is roasted dark first, which is what makes it so much darker than an unroasted blend.
🗺️
Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka grows the cinnamon, not the substitute. Cinnamomum verum is native to the island and its thin, brittle, many-layered quills are a different spice from the thick single-layer cassia sold under the same name elsewhere. Peeling it is a skilled trade, done by hand with a specialised knife.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Sri Lanka
Parippu & Pol SambolCreamy coconut-milk red lentils with a fiery fresh coconut-chili relish, the twin pillars of a Lankan rice table.
Fish Ambul Thiyal (Sour Fish Curry)Sri Lanka’s dry sour fish curry: firm fish coated in a jet-black paste of goraka and black pepper and cooked down until every piece wears a tangy, peppery crust.
Kottu RotiChopped flatbread stir-fried with curry, vegetables, and egg on a clanging griddle, Colombo’s midnight anthem.
Browse all Sri Lanka recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Sri Lanka meal
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WatalappanDessert
Kottu RotiDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Lamprais?
Rice and a mixed curry baked together in a banana leaf, a treasured Dutch Burgher dish of Sri Lanka.
Where does Lamprais come from?
Lamprais is a Sri Lankan dish from Western Province (Colombo), Sri Lanka.
Can Lamprais be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lamprais recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Lamprais safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Lamprais take to make?
About 100 minutes total (60 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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