Vegetable Pulao

Thinking of making Veg pulao since a very long time.. I'm very lazy about getting the masala needed for making this.

I always felt fried rice as an easier option compared to the pulao/biriyani as preperation of fried rice doesn't require any masala as such.So this idea of making pulao was shelved.

I'm a regular customer of bigbasket .While surfing through the veggies section of bigbasket, saw this cut vegetables mix for pulao. That time, it just stuck to my mind on preperaing pulao. So , I decided to make it on the weekend. Luckily I had rice in my home.I went to the supermarket and bought the spices required for the same. And then set out the journey of making pulao a Saturday morning..

INGREDIENTS (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)

main ingredients for veg pulao:

• 2 cups basmati rice ( I have used Dawat pulav rice)

• ¼ heaped cup each of chopped carrots, cauliflower/broccoli, french beans, green peas (fresh or frozen) and carrots. or 1 to 1.5 cups chopped veggies (you can add your choice of vegetables)

• 1 large onion, thinly sliced

• 1 medium size tomato, chopped

• ½ inch ginger + 2 to 3 medium garlic cloves + 1 green chili, crushed to a paste in a mortar-pestle

• 6 to 7 drops of lime juice

• 2 tbsp ghee or 2.5 tbsp oil

• salt as required

whole spices for veg pulao:

• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera or ¾ tsp caraway seeds/shah jeera

• 4 to 5 whole black pepper

• 2-3 cloves/laung

• 2 to 3 green cardamoms/hari elaichi or choti elaichi

• 1 black cardamom/ badi elaichi

• 1 small star anise/chakriphool

• 1 inch cinnamon/dalchini

INSTRUCTIONS

• Take 3 glasses of water and 2 cups of rice to boil in a closed pan. After it boils, simmer for 15 minutes.

• Add 1 tsp of lemon juice to make sure that rice doesn't stick to each other (while the rice starts to boil, add this)

• In a deep thick bottomed pot or pan, heat ghee/oil and fry all the whole spices mentioned above, till the oil becomes fragrant

• add the onions and saute them till golden. saute the onions on a low flame and stir often for uniform browning.

• add the ginger-garlic-green chili paste and saute for 10 to 12 seconds.

• add the tomatoes and saute for 2-3 minutes on a low flame.

• add all the veggies and saute again for 2-3 minutes on a low flame.

• Now mix the rice with the veggies and serve hot with some salad, papad and pickle.

• For the salad, I have used 2 medium onions(thinly sliced), 2 green chillies,1 medium tomato and curd

#vegetariandelights