Vegetable Ghee Rice – Kids’ Lunch Idea 8

   Are you troubled with the picky eating habits of your kids? Well, I was. My son used to be a very fussy eater. He used to eat chapathi for lunch and dinner every single day. He refused to eat anything else. I thought he would never ever eat rice!  But over the past few months he has changed his eating habits. He now loves this vegetable ghee rice and he likes to have it almost everyday. I make it using either jeerakashala rice or sona masoori rice and I use different vegetables in this recipe. This recipe doesn’t take more than 15 minutes to prepare and tastes really good too.

    The base recipe is that of ghee rice and I have added vegetables to make it more nutritious and tasty. You can use carrot, cabbage, green peas, green beans, sweet corn, broccoli etc in this recipe and you can use your imagination and add a  loooot more vegetables than mentioned in this recipe. Try it, your kiddos will surely love this vegetable ghee rice!

Ingredients (Serves 3)

1. Jeerakashala rice / sona masoori rice – 1 cup (Soaked in enough water for 20 minutes and drained)

2. Ghee – 1.5 tbsp

3. Whole spices – cardamom – 2 – 3, cloves – 4, cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch, whole pepper corns – 4

4. Cashew nuts – 5 – 6

5. Onion – 1/4 cup, thinly sliced

6. Carrot – 1 small, chopped

    Green beans – 3 tbsp, cut into thin rounds

    Cabbage – 1/4 cup, thinly sliced

7. Hot water – 1.5 cup

8. Salt – To taste

Method

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker at medium heat. Stir whole spices until fragrant. Add cashew nuts and stir for a few seconds. Next add onion and stir until light golden in color. Add the vegetables, a pinch of salt and stir-fry for 2 – 3 minutes. Add drained rice and stir for a minute. Next add hot water and bring to a boil. Add enough salt. Add 1/2 tsp ghee and mix well. Cover with the lid and cook until steam starts coming out profusely out of the lid. Bring down the heat and cook for 3 minutes at medium-low heat. Switch off. Open the cooker after 10 – 15 minutes. Yummy ghee vegetable rice will be ready to serve. Serve with pappadam or any spicy dish.