Easy Catering Style Vegetable Pulao

Ingredients (Serves 5)

Recipe courtesy – Lekshmi Nair

1. Basmati rice – 1.5 cups

2. Carrot – 1 medium-large, peeled, halved lengthwise and cut into slightly thick pieces

Green beans – 10 – 15, sliced diagonally

Fresh green peas – 1/3 cup

Green chilies, mildly spicy – 3, slit

3. Water – As needed

4. Whole spices – Green cardamom – 5, cinnamon stick – 1 inch broken, whole black pepper corns – 1/2 tsp, cloves – 6, bay leaves – 2, pandan leaves (rambha ela ) – 2 tbsp, torn

5. Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

6. Salt – To taste

7. Onion – 1 small, sliced and deep fried until golden and crisp

Cashews and raisins – 2 tbsp each

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Mint and cilantro – 3 tbsp each, chopped

Rose water / kewra water – A few drops

Method

1. Soak basmati rice in enough water for 20 – 25 minutes.

2. Boil water in a large vessel adding salt and whole spices. Add soaked and drained rice. Cook until rice is 60 – 65 % done or about 8 minutes. Add carrot, green beans and cook for a few minutes. Add fresh green peas, green chilies, 1 tbsp lemon juice and continue to cook for a few more minutes until rice is almost done (do not over cook). Strain rice using a colander.

3. Spread 1 tbsp ghee in the same vessel. Sprinkle fried onion, cashews, raisins, mint and cilantro. Top with 1/3rd of the hot cooked rice. Sprinkle fried onion, cashews etc and little ghee and few drops of kewra water. Repeat until all the rice is used up. Sprinkle the items for garnish. Cover with an aluminium foil. Cook on the lowest heat setting for 2 – 3 minutes. Switch off. Open after 10 minutes. Mix gently. Serve with raita and any side-dish of your choice.