Vegetable Pulao (without onion and garlic)

I am a lover of rice. Serve it to me in breakfast, lunch or even dinner I wouldn’t complain. I do struggle with rotis and even paranthas but when it comes to rice my real and huge appetite shows up. For me the word satisfaction and rice goes hand in hand. I, so badly wish rice was as healthy as wheat flour or multigrain flour. Then, I could have truly lived up to my love for rice.

I like to try varieties of rice and I am pretty good at some of them. Now it’s hard to believe that I have tried hard for 2 long years to re-create this simple magical vegetable pulao. In retrospection, I feel that I had nurtured the misconception that such an awesome tasting pulao could never be so simple. But the fact is that it is indeed very simple- no onion, no garlic and even no ginger or tomatoes. So when I first made it few days back with this particular recipe, I was not high on expectation and packed it for lunch. The first bite one of my friend’s took she said with a happy expression “yum…biryani”. Now that’s the mutual words of appreciation we use for awesome tasting rice item. Then there was another friend who traded her lunch box for mine. So I was finally elated at my success. So sharing this recipe for this simple and tasty Vegetable Pulao

Vegetable Pulao (no onion no garlic recipe)

Serves: 2 persons

Ingredients: 

Basmati rice- 1 glass

Water- 1 ¾ glass

Carrots- ½ cup (chopped into fine cubes)

Beans- ½ cup (finely chopped)

Green peas- ½ cup (3/4^th boiled)

Whole garam masalas

Green cardamom- 6

Cloves- 6

Bay leaf- 1

Cinnamon- 1 inch stick

Oil- 1 tbsp.

Ghee- 1 tbsp.

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Heat oil+ghee in a pressure cooker. Once hot add the whole garam masalas. Now reduce the flame to low and let the garam masalas splutter for 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye so as not to burn the masalas. This step is crucial as it helps the oil to extract the flavors from masalas. Then add carrot and beans. Cover and fry over medium flame till it is half done. Then add the peas and cook for another 2 minutes. After that add rice and fry it well for 1-2 minutes. Then add water, salt and bring the flame to high. Close the lid and wait for the first whistle. Then lower the flame and cook for another 7-8 minutes. Switch off the flame and let all the steam escape on its own and then open the lid. The simple yet magnificent pulao is ready to be served.

Notes:

Use good quality of Basmati rice for preparing this vegetable pulao.

You may reduce the ghee quantity used by ½ tbsp.

I have cooked the rice in pressure cooker and because of the correct way of cooking by rice didn’t stick.

One may also cook the rice through traditional method, but do follow the instructions provided by the particular brand of Basmati rice you would be using.