Vegetable Pulao Rice

This is a classic variation on the regular plain white rice and a sneaky way of getting your kids to eat veggies.

Note! this is not a fried rice. With a fried rice, you boil white rice first and then stir fry in the veggies and add to the rice. This rice is cooked along with the veggies. A one pot dish that saves you a lot of washing up too!. I have cooked this in my regular pressure cooker in exactly 10 minutes! A quick and easy recipe using store bought frozen veggies. I usually keep a packet handy in my freezer for exactly this!

Vegetable Pulao Rice

Ingredients:

4 cups of uncooked rice

3 tbsps of oil

2 medium onions chopped fine

1 tomato chopped fine

9 1/2 cups of water

1 cinnamon stick

3 whole cardammom pods

4-5 whole cloves

1 mace (outer covering of the nutmeg)

5 maggi stock cubes. (There are usually 2 in a small box)

1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables 

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp of cumin seeds

Method: 

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add in the cumin seeds. When you start to smell their aroma, add the rest of the whole spices, i.e. the cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves and mace. 

Add in the onions and saute till nice and golden. Add the chopped tomato next and the stock cubes. Saute till the cubes have melted and been absorbed into the onion tomato mixture. 

Add in the rice next, and the water. I usually add 1 1/2 cup water more than the doubled amount, so that the rice can fluff up nicely. Add in the frozen mixed vegetables. I usually throw them in straight from the freezer without defrosting. If you don't like mixed veggies, you can substitute it with just corn, or peas, whatever you fancy.

Give it a quick mix and then close the pressure cooker. Remove the whistle. This recipe does not require you to use the whistle of the pressure cooker. 

Put the heat on the highest setting. Stay in the kitchen as you will need to monitor it from now on. When you start to see a steady stream of steam coming out from the vent (wait for those little bursts of steam to flow in a straight line), then lower and time for 10 mins. 

As soon as 10 mins are over, open the rice cooker and remove from the heat. 

Note! These timings and water quantities are for cooking in a pressure cooker and may vary if you cook it in a regular casserole dish.

You will find most of the spices have floated their way to the top. This makes it a lot easier to remove them at this stage so that the kids don't make a fuss later about biting into them. 

Fluff up the rice with a fork and your rice is ready to eat. This recipe will stay nicely in the fridge too, for a couple of days. 

Vegetable Pulao Rice