Quick Coriander and vegetable Pulao

Some of our bachelor friends and even a few reader have asked me to post some quick vegetarian recipes that they can cook without hours laboring in the kitchen, especially after a hard days work. I have been planning to cook and post a few of my go to recipes but the bad health of the whole family kept me away from the kitchen. I will definitely post some good side dishes later that one can enjoy with rice or roti, but today am posting a very easy one-dish rice recipe that can be cooked in a jiffy. Yes, you can prepare a full meal with this under 30 minutes. It’s that easy and suits those moments when you crave a good home cooked meal without any effort.

For weekend dinners I like to prepare one-pot meals be it soup, Pasta or rice dishes. These preparations are perfect to have from a bowl while watching your favourite program or movie. I first started cooking these when I was in Delhi. Our hostel often served Tahri or the peasant rice dish from UP. For variations they added various veggies and sometimes soy nuggets. That was my easy soothing meal after a hard days work. Then when my brother came to Delhi for his Industrial Training I started experimenting more with such dishes and one day cooked this coriander pulao with lots of vegetables. That was an instant hit and thereafter became a staple in my kitchen. 

Then recently I saw sandeepa cooking her egg pulao with almost this same spice blend but then she added a few mint leaves. I was intrigued by that idea and this time has also added a handful of mint leaves from my garden. It gives a very mild minty kick to the dish, which we loved.  And now hubby calls this green chutney pulao. This dish needs a raita at the sides to cut the spice and to make a perfect meal.

You can cook this dish in a big pan or even in microwave but I prefer my pressure cooker. As the minimum stirring keeps the rice grains whole and separate. Now cooking perfect pulao in pressure cooker is a bit tricky. The ratio of rice to water has to be perfect and also the number of whistles you should allow. This time I am giving you exact measurement and in the pictures you can see the results yourselves. Here is the step-by-step recipe.

Quick Coriander and Vegetable Pualo

(serves 2)

Ingredients:

Basmati or any other long grain rice: 11/2 cups

Assorted vegetables like cauliflower, peas, potato, carrots, beans etc. cut into cubes: 21/2 cups

Oil: 2 tbsp+1tsp

To be ground together

Onion: 1 big

Ginger: 1.5” piece

Garlic: 5-6 fat cloves

Coriander seeds: 1 tbsp

Dry red chilies: 4 pieces

Fresh coriander: 1 cup tightly packed

Mint leaves: ¼ cup loosely packed

Tomato: 1 small

For tempering

Cloves: 5-6

Black pepper: 8-9

Cinnamon: 1 small stick

Salt

Warm water: 23/4 cups

Lemon juice: few drops

Method:

First prepare the rice. Wash it properly, drain the excess water and then spread on absorbing paper. Let it completely dry before use.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pressure cooker. Add the vegetables and salt, fry on low for 3-4 minutes.

Add the rest of the oil and temper with clove, cinnamon and pepper. Once they start to splutter add the spice paste. Add salt and fry on low till oil separates at the sides (approx 6-7 minutes).

Add the rice and fry for a minute. Pour the warm water and lemon juice.

Add the vegetables. Give a stir to mix everything. Check the salt.

Cover and let it cook till one whistle on low flame. Once done switch off the gas and let the steam escape in itself.

Uncover and fluff the pulao with fork and serve hot with Raita.

Both of us were having cold so this time we had ours with garlic-mango pickle and hard boiled eggs fried with salt and turmeric (thanks for the idea Bongmom). If you are not having cold then don’t give a miss to the raita. That makes the meal perfect.

Sandeepa has a similar egg pulao here.

Events:

Sending this to Akheela's Festive rice event at Torview.

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