Vegetable Pulao

Nothing like a spice filled aromatic vegetable shahi pulao!!!

Ingredients:

Basmati rice – ½ Kg

Carrot – 1 Big (diced)

Beans – 4-5 Nos (1 cm long pieces)

Potato – 1 Big (diced)

Onion – 1 big (sliced)

Cumin seeds – 1 Tsp

Shah Jeera – 1 Tsp

Curry leaf – 7-8 leaves

Mint leaf – 7-8 leaves

Cloves – 3-4 Nos

Cinnamon stick – 1 Big

Staranise - 1 Nos

Spices powder – 1-2 Tsp (Cloves+Cinnamon – grind it into a fine powder)

Turmeric powder – 1-2 Tsp

Ghee – 5-6 Tbsp

Oil

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Soak the rice in water for 15-30 min and set aside. Take a wide bottomed pan in which you prefer to prepare the pulao, on a low medium heat. Pour in 3 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp ghee and let it heat. Once hot, put in both the kinds of jeera. Let it sautee for a second and put in the onion slices. Once the onions are golden brown, throw in all the veggies and let them fry for a minute. Now you can increase the flame to medium high.

Put the curry leaf and the mint leaf and give it a good stir. Next goes all the whole spices (Cloves, Cinnamon stick, Staranise) along with the spices powder. By now you should already be getting the beautiful aroma of the veggies and the spices.

Strain the rice from the soaked water and layer the rice in the pan and stir it softly, preventing the breakage of the rice. Now pour in water and put turmeric powder, salt to taste. Add 1 Tbsp oil to the water.

Rice to water ratio is 1:2

Let the flame continue on high till the water gets to boil and reduces to the rice level. Once you can see the rice, put a lid and lower the flame to low. It is just 4-5 minutes away that a delicious tray of pulao is on your way.

Just remove the lid and check if all the water is absorbed. Do not stir. Turn off the heat and garnish with few fried onions and 2 Tbsp Ghee and close the lid.

Do not stir till it is cooled down for a while. This will prevent rice from breaking.