Vegetable Rice

I learnt this from one of my friend. This recipe is a lighter version of Vegetable Biryani which can very well be packed for kids lunch. My kids like this since its not much spicier and has a very good aroma. When we have all the vegetables cut, then its one of the very easy and quick recipes to be prepared on a busy morning.

Items Required:

Vegetables - Carrot, Potato,Green peas,beans,cauliflower, onion and tomato. Cut into equal sized small squares.
Basmati rice - 1 tumbler. Cleaned and soaked in 1.5 tumblers of water for a minimum of 30 mins.
Green chilly - as per taste.
Garam Masala - 1 tablespoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon
Bay leaves, cloves and cardamom - small amounts.
Salt - as required.
Oil and Ghee - as required.

Pre-requisites before starting to cook:

1. Clean and soak the basmati rice a minimum of 30 mins.
2. Cut all the vegetables and wash it in clean water.

Method:

Heat the pressure pan. Add 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of ghee. Add the bay leaves, cloves and cardamom pieces. Once they are cooked, add the chopped onion and green chilly and fry them in oil till the onion becomes golden brown.Add the ginger garlic paste and cook it with onion till the raw smell is gone.

Now add the vegetables mix and saute them well for 2 mins. Add the tomato now and mix them well. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and garam masala to it and mix them with the vegetables.

Now add the soaked rice to the vege mix and add required amount of salt to it. Mix them gently making sure the rice doesnt break.

Let the rice starts to boil for few mins. Now close the lid and allow it for 4 whistles. Once the steam is completely gone, open the lid for the beautiful aroma :)

Mix the rice gently and transfer the contents to a hot pack. Serve it with Onion Raitha.

Try it and provide your comments :)

Paneer Fried Rice

Paneer or cottage cheese, was never my favourite food item till i started tasting the paneer dishes after i started my professional life. And nowadays i have started to prepare recipes with Paneer at home. My hubby and daughter love fried rice a lot and i thought adding paneer to the fried rice would be more tastier and healthier too. Thats how i did this one day and it came out really well.

Items required:

Beans, Carrot, cabbage, capsicum - cleaned and cut into thin and slightly lengthy pieces
Onion - cut into think pieces
Basmati rice - cooked such that each grain is seperate
Oil/Ghee
Salt
Pepper powder
Soya Sauce
Paneer - cut into small cubes

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in water for 5 mins before cooking. Pressure cook it(with little salt) such that each grain is seperate. Keep it aside.

Now heat oil/ghee in a kadai and deep fry the paneer cubes first. Keep them aside.

Now fry the onions till they turn golden brown in colour. Now add the vegetables one by one and fry them in the oil nicely. Sprinkle little salt over the veg. Simmer the flame and keep frying, till the veg are cooked nicely.

Now add the rice and mix all of them well. Now add small amount of soya sauce and mix all of them well.

Finally add the deep fried paneer pieces to the fried rice and remove from flame.

Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Note: Since we dont add water to cook the vegetables, this requires little more oil than what we use normally.

Tomato Rice

This is a simple and tasty lunch time dish which can be made quickly too. I somehow never liked tomato rice during my school and college days and suddenly started liking it very much now :) Try this method and let me know your comments :)

Items required:

Tomatoes - 4 big ones or 5 medium sized, chopped nicely
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Green chilly - 1 or 2 for flavour, slit lengthwise
Onion - 1 big sized or 2 medium sized, chopped nicely
Sambar powder/Red chilly - 1 1/2 tablespoon
Salt
Oil - for seasoning
Curry leaves

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for 10 mins. Now heat cooker pan in stove and add little oil in it. Put the curry leaves in it and add the chopped onion and green chilly to it. Once the onion turns golden brown in colour, add the chopped tomatoes and saute them well. Now add the rice, required amount of salt, sambar powder and a pinch of turmeric powder to it. Add enough amount of water to the mix. (Make sure not too much of water is added because tomato also leaves some water when cooked.)

Close the lid and leave it for 5 whistles. and switch off the flame. Once the steam is completely stopped open the lid and transfer the rice to a hotpack.

Note:
1. While sauteing, a small amount of ginger-garlic paste and perunjeeragam can be added for flavour.
2. Corriander leaves and fried cashews can be used for garnishing at the end.

Delicious tomato rice is ready to be served. Try it and let me know your comments :)

Mango Rice

I came to know this recipe through one of the website in internet and we all loved it a lot. I try to use as much mangoes as possible during the mango season. For this recipe its better to use raw mango which is not too sour and not sweet. It has to be in medium sour for the mango rice to taste good. Here comes the recipe. :)

Items Required:

Raw mango - 1 no. grated
Mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal, Groundnut, curry leaves for seasoning
Green chilly - 3. Cut into small pieces or slit lengthwise
salt, turmeric and oil as required
Rice - cooked and dried so that each grain is separate.

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and add the seasoning items. Now add the green chilly and a pinch of turmeric and mix them well. Now simmer the flame and add the grated mango. Add little amount of salt and mix it well. Let it cook for 2 mins. Now add the cooked rice to the mixture and slowly mix the mango and the rice together make sure the rice doesnt break. Let the flame be in sim only. Leave it for 2 mins and remove from flame.

Garnish with corriander leaves. Mango rice is ready :)

Fried Rice

All three of us love Fried rice and the aroma it has. After continuous trying, finally i was able to bring the hotel like taste and aroma. My daughter likes fried rice with the combination of tomato sauce a lot.

Items required:

Beans, Carrot, cabbage, capsicum - cleaned and cut into thin and slightly lengthy pieces
Onion - cut into thin pieces
Basmati rice - cooked such that each grain is seperate
Oil/Ghee
Salt
Pepper powder
Ajinamoto
Soya Sauce

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in water for 5 mins before cooking. Pressure cook it(with little salt) such that each grain is seperate. Keep it aside. Now heat oil/ghee in a kadai and fry the onions till they turn golden brown in colour. Now add the vegetables one by one and fry them in the oil nicely. Sprinkle little salt over the veg. Simmer the flame and keep frying, till the veg are cooked nicely.Add pinch of ajinamoto to the mix.

Now add the rice and pepper powder and mix all of them well. Now add small amount of soya sauce and mix all of them remove from flame.

Serve hot with tomato sauce.

Note: Since we dont add water to cook the vegetables, this requires little more oil than what we use normally.

Cauliflower Peas Pulav

Items Required:

Cauliflower florets - seperated to thin and small pieces
Peas
Onions
salt
Turmeric powder
Jeera Powder
Garam Masala Powder
Red Chilly Powder
Cinnamon - small piece
Jeera - little
Basmati Rice - Make sure the rice cooked and is seperate.

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai. Add jeera and cinnamon to it. After 2 mins add the onion and fry till the onion becomes crisp. Now add the cauliflower and the peas to the kadai and fry them for 5 mins till the veg is cooked and becomes crisp. Now add turmeric power, jeera powder, chilly powder, garam masala powder and salt to the mix. Add the rice to the above and mix all of them well. Keep it in medium flame and keep mixing the rice slowly making sure the rice doesnt break. After 5 mins, remove from flame.

Serve hot with onion raitha or kurma.

Note: Cashews fried in ghee can be added after the pulav is done.

Pudhina Rice

Pudhina Rice

Basmati Rice - 1 Cup
Pudhina - handful
Green Chilly - 2-3 (u can add more or reduce based on how hot the chilly is)
corriander leaves - small amount(less than the amount of pudhina)
Garlic - 4-5
ginger - a small piece
biryani leaves
cloves - 1 or 2
Cinnamon - a small piece
Carrot, beans, onion - as required.
Salt - as required.
Ghee/oil - as required.

Note:
Before starting to cook this, wash the rice nicely and soak it in clean water for 5 mins. The same water can be used in the cooking as it is.

Method:
Grind pudhina, green chilly, garlic, ginger and corriander leaves in a mixer grinder to a nice paste. Keep it aside. Now heat oil/ghee in a cooker pan and add biryani leaves, cloves and cinnamon and fry for 2 mins. Now add onion and fry it. Once it turns to golden brown colour, add carrot and beans and fry them together for another 2 mins. Now add the rice with the water and add the pudhina paste also. Now add salt according to taste. Mix everything nicely. Add 4-5 leaves of pudhina as it is and close the lid. LEt 5 whistles come. Switch off the cooker. Remove the lid once the steam is completely over. Slightly mix the rice making sure the rice doesnt break.