Beeroot Chickpeas Rice

Beet Chickpeas Rice

I never used to like beetroot when I was a child and have no idea why so. My brother used to eat it and even about three or four years back, when I visited him, he had to make another veggie for me as I will not eat beets. Now, it is a different story. I do not just eat the beets but also the lovely greens that come with it. Oh yes, it is indeed edible. I try to get the beets from the market as they would be sold with the greens unlike most supermarkets. The greens, like all other greens are extremely good for the health. Beet greens are rich in vitamin K and also vitamin A. While the latter is important in blood clotting, the latter helps immunity and also vision. Anyway, deep coloured fruits and veggies have whole host of benefits. The benefits we get from the pigments in beets tend to diminish with increased cooking time so just cook until done. I had tried beet greens with dal, will post recipe later, and since then have been a fan of it. I decided to combine chickpeas with this rice dish to add protein. I was not sure if my husband would like it but his feedback was that it appeared to be bland but was actually very flavourful and nice.

3 spring onions, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

2 medium beetroots, cut into long pieces

¾ cup cooked chickpeas

8-10 beet green leaves

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 cup rice, cooked so grains are fluffy

Cooking oil

Heat oil and add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Add the spring onions after seeds crackle

Once it wilts, add the ginger garlic paste and tomatoes and sauté for couple of minutes

Add beet greens and sauté for a minute or so

Add beetroot, required salt and cook until tender. Keeping it covered will speed up the process

Add chilli flakes, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and sauté for couple of minutes.

Add chickpeas and cook for 3-4 minutes

Add rice, mix and serve!

Sambar Spice Fried Rice

Sambar Spice Fried Rice

If you are a fan of schezwan rice, then you are likely to enjoy this too. It really is the south Indian equivalent of the Chinese dish. My husband used to make variety rices (it has been a while since he has made them now) and they were always quite unique and delish. He would never let me find what he is adding to them. I knew he was using a spice mixing that I was not quite using. I am still guessing what it is but my bet is on sambar powder bought from the shop (I seldom use store bought sambar powder and keep it as a fall back). Recently, I watched a recipe by vah chef and turns out he also makes a rice with sambar powder. I made it the very next day and took it for lunch, it was very nice. The use of chopped garlic gave it a Chinese hint and I am sure the flavour will be slightly different if we use garlic paste. Here is the recipe...

1 cup rice, cooked so grains are fluffy

1 tomato, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

Handful of green beans, chopped

½ cup green peas

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons sambar powder

1 tablespoon butter

Required salt

Few curry leaves

Some coriander leaves, chopped

Except rice and coriander leaves, mix all ingredients in a bowl

Add this mixture to a hot pan and cook until veggies are just done and mix this with cooked rice and garnish with coriander leaves

Serve hot or just pack for lunch with raita

Tomato Paneer Pulav

Tomato Paneer Pulav

Rice, rice , rice. Rice brings me great comfort as it is easy to cook, quick and well, I grew up on it! Variety rice gets a big thumbs up from me as I could get away with one dish and maybe a raita. I saw a tomato paneer pulav in Sanjeev Kapoor's website and thought it was worth trying. For a change, I did fry the paneer in little oil this time and got reminded of how nice fried paneer would be, ofcourse fattening too. Anyway, I used just a spoon of oil to fry the cubed paneer. I liked how the recipe called for pav bhaji masala as it was a good way to use it considering I seldom make pav bhaji. Here is the recipe...

3 tomatoes, chopped

2 cups chopped vegetables

3 cups rice

About 200g of paneer, cut into bite size pieces

2 teaspoon pav bhaji masala

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon coriander powder

2-3 green chillies, slit

2 teaspoon butter

Salt to taste

Cooking oil

Heat some oil and fry the paneer cubes. I did not deep fry but sautéd it until golden brown

 

Heat some oil and butter and add the cumin seeds and allow it to brown and then add the onions and green chillies and fry until soft

Add the tomatoes and cook for couple of minutes

Add vegetables (I used frozen carrots, cauliflower, peas and broccoli) and cook until vegetables are done the tomato is mushy but almost all the water has gone

Add pav bhaji masala and coriander powder and cook until raw smell goes. You could add some chilly powder if you desire

Add required salt and then add the cooked rice and fried paneer, mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve

Paneer Pulav

Paneer Pulav

Time and again I keep proving to myself that unless one puts their heart and soul into cooking, the dishes do not come even reasonably good. That does not mean you have to sweat yourself in the kitchen but just that if either your mind or your body is not there fully, then I find myself binning more food than we ate. Last couple of weeks have been very hard as my husband was down with quite a bad chest infection and I had limited help and it was all too overwhelming. Last week and now seems to be my turn to be ill. When you have two young children and live away from family, resting while ill is luxury really. In order to keep myself going I tried to make/bake new dishes but it just did not work. I kept saying to myself it is okay, I will eventually bounce back. Anyway, that's enough rant for tonight, here is a very simple but tasty rice recipe...

1 onion, finely chopped

1 green pepper, finely chopped

1 yellow pepper, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely chopped

About 100g of paneer, cut into small pieces

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

1 cup rice soaked and cooked so grains are fluffy

Salt to taste

Cooking oil and little butter/ghee

Whole spices – about 4 cloves, 1 piece cinnamon, 2-3 bay leaves, 2 star anise, 3-4 cardamom pods

Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Heat some oil and add the whole spices and allow them to puff up

Add the cumin seeds and once it turns golden brown, add the onions and fry until it turns soft

Add the vegetables and cook until done

Add salt, paneer and rice. You could fry the paneer to make them more chewy but I usually avoid that extra fat and effort

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with a spicy side dish or just raita

Palak and Til Rice (spinach and sesame rice)

Palak and Til Rice

Green is such a beautiful colour that in its absence any dish looks incomplete. It is one colour that I just have to include everyday in my cooking. As I have quoted on many other posts, it is important to have a variety of colours everyday and that is because each of them carry heir own benefits an dwe need them all to be healthy. When I say colour, clearly, I am not referring to the synthetic colours. This dish is a treat to the yes with its wonderful colour and tastes wonderful. The sesame seeds add a beautiful flavour and texture to the rice. It is a combination of two recipes, Tarla Dalal’s and khanapakhana site. This is a keeper as it was liked by everyone at home.

To blanch the spinach, just put it in boiling water for couple of minutes

2 bunches palak, blanched and pureed

1 onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

2 tablespoon sesame seeds

1-2 green chillies, chopped

Few curry leaves

Salt to taste

1 ½ cups rice, cooked so grains are fluffy

Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add the onions, garlic, chillies and ginger. Cook until onion begins to change colour

Add curry leaves and pureed spinach and cook until any raw smell goes, add salt

Add the rice and mix

In a separate pan, add the sesame seeds and toast until it begins to brown

Serve the rice with sesame seeds sprinkled on top

Persian Dill Rice/Shivid Polow

Shivid Polow (Persian Dill Rice)

I have searched over and over to check if I had posted this recipe earlier and concluded that I hadn’t. Quite surprising because I have made it so many times since I first tried it as it is very easy to make and goes very well with most gravies with legumes/beans in them. Dill is not one of the herbs that I had tried earlier and remember buying it once and deferring my attempt to use it. Eventually it ended up in the bin. The next time around, my husband was trying some dish and happened to use a small bunch and I quite liked it. The trouble with him though, is that he will not remember how he made the dish. So I looked for some rice dishes using dill and found a Persian recipe for it. It is an incredibly simple recipe and I tend to make it in parallel with some other gravy.

Dill, like most herbs have great benefits to us. It is suppose to be an appetiser. It supposedly activates secretion of bile and digestive juices. Dill also has calming properties and helps promote sleep. This herb has anti microbial properties as well as anti fungal properties, providing help with digestive problems. It has anti oxidants that can help protect against cancer. It is a galactogogue i.e. promotes breast milk production in lactating mothers. It also has calcium, making it good for bones and teeth.

Usually, I cook my rice in the pressure cooker. This recipe, though, is an exception and I used a heavy bottomed pressure pan to cook the rice, without the pressure. I just let the rice boil in required amount of water. When you do so, make sure you do not stir often as the starch in the rice will make it stick together. 

1 ½ cups rice

1 cup dill, chopped

2 tablespoons oil

1 garlic clove (optional)

Pinch of saffron, crushed and added to ¼ cup water and rested for 10 minutes

Salt to taste

Rinse and soak the rice in 2 cups water for about 30 minutes. Cook the rise in an open pot/dish until all water has evaporate and rice looks nearly done. Note that quantity of water may vary based on rice quality so adjust water in such a way you get rice fluffy. If using garlic, add it with the dill. 

Add the chopped dill, salt and mix

Pour in the saffron water all over. Cover with lid and cook on low flame for about 30 minutes

Serve hot with spicy side dish

Soya Vegetable Biryani

Soya Vegetable Biryani

Biryani is a very popular rice dish, especially he non vegetarian ones are a favourite for many. I have tried vegetable biryani in many places but there are very few that I liked. In general, it takes a bit of time to do it the traditional way. Traditionally one will have to grind spices, partially cook rice and vegetables and layer them and cook them until done. However, these days, I barely get time to cook and often, I get time in bits and bobs so any dish that needs constant attention is out of question. Today was no exception, we had a long night and grabbed the opportunity to sleep in the morning leaving me very little time to cook. I had a packet of hyderabadi biryani masala powder by MDH in my shelf and like all spices, it is better to use them as soon as possible. For that reason, I thought I will make biryani. My previous attempts to make biryani were not particularly successful as I was not very happy with the results. This box of spices was for lamb biryani, hold on, it is only a spice blend and there is nothing non-vegetarian in the spices itself. I wanted to substitute the lamb with some other protein instead and soya chunks caught my eye. I am not sure I will buy soya chunks again as it is processed soya after all, but am undecided about it. I wanted to use what I had but have to sneak it as my husband does not quite like it. With all this together, came along a wonderful biryani and it tasted absolutely spot on. Certainly a keeper! I have observed that using spice blends meant for non vegetarian dishes is quite good in vegetarian versions. Now for the recipe...

Handful of soya chunks, boiled and cooked till done

2 cups mixed vegetables

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspooon coriander powder

Turmeric powder

1 teaspoon chilly powder

4 cloves garlic

1 heaped teaspoon biryani masala

1 tomato, chopped

1 tablespoon yogurt

2 teaspoon ghee

Cooking oil

2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

1 cup rice, cook so grains are fluffy

Heat some oil and some of the ghee mentioned. Add cumin seeds and once it browns, add the onions and crushed garlic

After the onions begin to change colour, add tomato and turmeric powder

Once tomato starts turning mushy, add the vegetables and cook until almost done

Add the cooked soya chunks, coriander powder and chilly powder

Heat the remaining ghee and little bit more oil and fry the briyani masala, this will wake up all the spices in it and make it more flavourful

Add the masala and yogurt and cook until it is aromatic and all moisture has gone

Add rice, salt, mix and garnish with coriander leaves, serve!

Onion Rice

Onion Rice

Rice, rice, rice! No doubt, it is my comfort grain. I try to make a number of rice dishes and most of the times variety rice comes in handy. This rice, in my opinion puts a rather taken for granted vegetable to teh centre stage. Onion, I think, has been added to ever so many dishes that sometimes it does not get enough attention, we don’t get to appreciate the flavours this vegetable alone has to offer. There are so many variety of them, distinctly or at times subtly different from its cousins, you could almost use the recipe but just change the onion variety to create a difference. Not to forget, onion is one of five a day vegetables so it brings a wealth of benefits to you. It is a really easy and quick dish that would be good as packed lunch as well. I made this with charred aubergine raita and it was a hearty meal. Here you go...

1 large onion, sliced

2 red chillies

2 green chillies, chopped

1 teaspoon urd dal

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

few curry leaves

some roasted ground nuts (optional)

turmeric powder

salt to taste

Asafoetida

Gingelly oil if not any other oil

1 cup rice, cooked so grains are separate

Heat some oil and add the mustard seeds and urd dal. Wait for the seeds to crackle

Add dry red chillies, gree chillies, turmeric powder, curry leaves and asafoetida

Add the onions and cook until it is done but not overcooked

Add required salt and rice and mix well

Garnish with roasted groundnuts and serve warm

Sundakkai Vathal Rice (Dried Turkey Berry Rice)

Sundakkai Vathal Rice

Health is wealth and I would rather be the wealthiest person and ofcourse keep my friends and family wealthy. Also, I rather do it by eating healthy than popping pills. These turkey berries are one of those gems found naturally and can help us a great deal. I have written more about these berries in this post. Unlike many other berries, this berry is not sweet but bitter but even better for us. Having this kind of rice even once a week should do us good. My mom’s tip to make the sundakkai more palatable (make it less bitter) is to fry it in generous portion of oil instead of a spoon of oil. I made pumpkin pachadi which is hot and sweet so that complemented the bitterness in the berries. Trust me, the whole meal was just wonderful. Even if you do not normally have Indian meals, you should try this for the simple reason that it is super healthy. Dried turkey berries are available in most Indian shops.

2 tablespoon sundakkai vathal

3-4 garlic cloves

4-5 sambar onion (pearl onion)

One sprig curry leaves

2-3 dry red chillies

Turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Gingelly oil

1-2 tablespoon powdered sundakai vathal

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon urd dal

Heat some gingelly oil and add the mustard seeds, urd dal, dry red chillies and allow the seeds to crackle

Add onion, garlic, and curry leaves and cook until raw smell goes

Add turmeric powder and sundakkai and fry until it begins to change colour

Add the crushed/powdered sundakai and fry for couple of minutes

Add cooked rice, salt and mix well, serve hot