Vegetable Pulav (Rice cooked with vegetables)

 Vegetable Pulav

Vegetable pulav is a complete meal by itself because it has starch, carbs, protein, micro nutrients as well as much needed dietary fibers. Pulav served with curd/riata/chutney/salad /pickle elevates the whole experience of eating pulav to next level. In this post I have given recipe for making pulav without onion and garlic, though later on in suggested variation column  I have given the steps for adding onion and garlic to pulav.

Preparation Time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30- 40 minutes
Servings: 4 Large servings

Nutritional Value (Approx. value for the total cooked amount)

Energy 1250cal

Carbs    294 carbs

Fat       80g 

Dietary fibers  40.5 gm 

Folates  216ug

Niacin  1.04mg niacin

Vit A   40 iu,

Sodium 150mg +rest from  salt 

 Potassium 1400 + from salt 

Calcium  1.0 g 

copper  982 mg,

magnisium  534mg,

Iron 12 mg  

Phosphorous 758mg,

Zinc   5.70mg

Sugars 10.5 g

Protein 25 g protein 

Ingredients Required For Making Vegetable Pulav:

• 150 gm Basmati Rice (Long grained rice)
• 100gm French Beans
• 100 gm Carrot (1 medium size)
• 50 gm Capsicum (1 lagre)
• 100 gm Potato (1 large)
• 75-100 gm Cauliflower florets
• 100 gm Shelled Peas
• 200-250 gm Paneer
• 1 Teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 4-5 Cloves (Lawang)
• 2 Black Cardamom ( Badi/kali elaichi)
• 2 Green Cardamom (Hari elaichi)
• 2-3 Bay leafs (Tej patta)
• 1 Pinch Nutmeg Powder
• 1 flower of Mace
• 2 Teaspoon grated ginger (or ginger paste)
• 1 Teaspoon of Red chili powder (or to taste)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric powder (Optional)
• Salt to taste
• 50 gm Of Clarified Butter (Ghee)

Directions for Making Pulav:

• Wash and pat dry all vehgetables.
• Peel and cut potato to big pieces or of size of your liking.
• Cut carrots, beans , cauliflower to long pieces.

 Few Vegetables For Pulav

• Remove the stem and seeds of capsicum and cut capsicum to big pieces.
• Wash the rice in running water and soak it in 200 ml  water.
• Pound cardamoms and mace and keep them aside
• Cut paneer to the size of your liking and sautee them on a thick bottom pan till both sides become pinkish brown. Keep aside
• Heat ghee in a pressure cooker on high flame.
• Once the ghee is hot enough but not smoking lower the heat and add
• Cumin seeds
• Cloves
• Bay leafs
• Pounded bleck and green cardamoms
• Mace
• Nutmeg poder
• Cook for say 30-40 sec. The seeds will splutter and wonderful aroma of cooked spices with come.
• Add ginger and cook for 10-15 sec.
• Add potatoes and cook on low heat for about 2 minutes with continuos stirring. Potatoes will change the color and textue.   The outer skin will look crispy.
• Add capsicum and cook for 1-2 minutes with continuous stirring. Do not allow the capsicum to attain dark coclor(burn).

Potatoes and Capsicum Being cooed with spices

• Add cauliflower and cook for 1-2 minutes with continuous stirring.

Cauliflower with shallow fried Potatoes and Capsicum

• Add beans and carrots. Cook for a minute or so with continuous stirring,

Beans and Carrots added 

• By now all vegetables will be seeped well in floavors of spices and cooked partiailly,
• Drain water from soaked rice keep the water aside for further use.  Add soaked, drained  rice to the vegetables in the cooker.

Soaked Rice being sauteed with veggies

• Add shelled peas and mix.
• Stir and mix nicely.
• Add
• Turmeric
• salt
• Red chili powder
• Mix.
• Add paneer and mix nicely.

Paneer added 

• Add water kept aside after draing the rice. Mix and check for water level if required add more water.

Water added as per requirement

• The measure of water is that the level of water should be 1/2 centimeter abouve the rice-vegetable mixture. (Use spoon handle forchecking water level). The water requirement may changes for different variety of rice. Regular cooking of steamed rice the measurement is one cm above the rice level, but in pulav rice is less and veggies are in large quantity (rice1 : veggies4) thus water requirement is less.
• Close the lid of pressure cooker with weight on it. Bring the heat to maximum till pressure starts building in cooker.
• Once the pressure is built in pressure cooker bring the heat to low and allow it to cook for 10 minutes (If the cooker gives whistle then cook till three whistles are given by cooker).
• Switch off the heat and allow it to cool. Open only when there is no pressure in the cooker. Sprinkle 10-20ml. of melted ghee and give a gentle twirl to pulav.

Vegetable Pulav

Serve hot pulav with raita/curd/pickle/chutney papad. and enjoy the meal of pulav.
https://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/07/pahari-kheere-ka-raita-cucumber-and.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/mango-pickle-north-indian-style.html

Tips:

• Make sure the spices added for tempering don't turn black(Burn) this will bring undesired change in the appearance as well as the taste of pulav. 
• Too much water will make pulav mushy and less water will cause undercooking of rice so add water properly as per the measurement.
• Adding ghee when the pulav is cooked gives amazing flavor to pulav.
• The ratio of vegetables to rice should be 4:1. But you can change as per taste. I prefer lots of veggies so that I get full nutrition and ofcourse delectable taste.
• If the peas are frozen peas then they should be added along with paneer so that they donot over cook and lose their color and texture.

Suggested Variation:

• Since the recipe does not ask for onion and garlic, but veg-pulav is also made by adding lots of onion and garlic.
• Take 2 medium size onion (!00gm) slllicethem thin and log,
• 8-10 cl.oves of garlic, peel and crush then in mortar and pestle.
• Afetr the spices are cooked add garlic and onion cook till translucent then add potato and follow the recipe then onward as above.
• Paneer can be replaced by soaked nutri-nuggets (Soya nuggets). Squeeze all water from soaked nutri-nuggets and fry them along with potatoes, then add veggies as per the recipe.

Vegetable Pulav with Nutri-nuggets

Oil Less Lemon Pickle

Lemon PIckle Without Jaggery

Lemom Pickle With Jaggery

My granny used to say older the lemon pickle without oil more is its medicinal value. Thus in her home and later in my mom’s home lemon pickle used to be stored in porcelain containers tightly packed and sealed. The container which used to open used to be at least a year old. Lemon pickle has its medicinal value only when red chilies are not added to it. I prefer my lemon pickle to be sweet, sour and hot. Oil is not used in this simple but tasty pickle. I love making pickles. For me working in kitchen is best stress buster and watching the reactions of my family members when they devour the food/pickle/cakes/puddings is the most joyous moment. This pickle requires very few ingredients and equally less time and labor.

Preparation Time: 30-40 min.

Maturing Time: 20-30 days

Servings: Makes 500 gm. pickle (Approx.)

Ingredients Required For Making Lemon Pickle:

• 30-35 Ripe Yellow Lemons (Medium Size) / 500 gm. Ripe Yellow Lemons
• 100 gm. Red Chili Powder / To taste
• 100 gm. Red Kashmiri Chili Powder
• 4-5 Teaspoons of Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon pure Asafoetida powder
• Salt to taste

Direction For Making Lemon Pickle:

• Wash and wipe the surface of lemons dry.
• Keep the cleaned lemons under the sun / fan for 30 minutes to make sure they are dry.
• Squeeze the juice of 10 lemons and keep the juice for later use.
• Cut the lemon rind left after taking out the juice from lemons, into pieces (I cut them to strips).
• Cut off little bit of top and bottom end, of the remaining lemons.(The end where stalk is attached and the opposite end).
• Cut the lemons to 4 pieces if they are medium size or eight pieces if they are big.
• In a bowl take:
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Red chili powder
• Kashmiri Mirch powder
• Asafoetida
• Mix the ingredients nicely
• Take all lemon pieces and pieces of lemon rind in a big stainless steel container and add the spices mixture to it.
• Mix nicely.
• Add lemon juice and mix.

Lemon Pieces With Speces etc.

• Cover the container with lemon and spices mixture with a muslin cloth and place under the sun for 10-15 days. Make sure the container is kept inside in the night time.
• The lemons will start changing the color and will start becoming soft.

Ready to be Botteled

• Put this partially matured pickle in a glass / porcelain container and place the lid tightly.

Pickle Bottled and Ready for More Sun Heating and Maturing

• Keep daily under the sun for 15 days more. Now the pickle container can be left out in night time also if it is kept in safe place. The cooling in night and heating by sun in day time does wonder to the pickle.
• After one month you can consume the ready pickle, but I prefer to keep it in my shelf for 2-3 months before I allow the pickle to be consumed. Because longer it is allowed to mature softer the lemon pieces become and the spices mix with the lemon pieces very nicely.

Matured Lemon Pickle After Three Months

Enjoy the oil free lemon pickle with stuffed paranthas / dal-Chawal / biryani …..

Tips:

• Use only stainless / wooden utensils to make pickle.
• Check the purity of all spices for purity they are the main culprit for the pickle getting spoilt. (If not pure)
• Make sure all lemons are yellow and unblemished.
• Dry the lemons properly else the pickle will go bad,
• Check the hotness of chili powder before adding. Each brand has different hotness. I prefer making my own chili powder from whole deseeded chilies to ensure purity.
• Do not use marketed asafoetida powder as it has maida in it and can cause the pickle to spoil. If you do not get pure asafoetida powder then omit it.
• Kashmiri chili powder is for giving color it can be avoided. In that case the color of pickle will be dullish.
• Make sure all containers and equipment as well as your hands are dry while machining pickle.

Suggested Variations:

• After two to three months when the lemon pieces are soft and the pickle is juicy 250 gm. finely broken jaggery can be added to get sweet and sour taste. I keep two containers one with jaggery other without jaggery to cater for the taste of family members.

Matured Lemon Pickle With Jaggery

• 50 gm. Ajwain (Caraway seeds) can be added after cleaning them. (Rub with cloth).
• 20-30 ml. of Vinegar can be added to ensure that in rainy weather the pickle does not spoil. I use apple cider if I it starts raining during maturing time (First one month).
• Deseeded, roasted whole red chilies can be added to the lemon and spices mixture. The juicy tangy red chili tastes awesome.  

Oil Less Green Chili Pickle/हरी मिर्च अदरक का अचार बिना तेल

Oilless Green Chili Pickle

This is one pickle which vanishes fast from the bottle as my whole family is very fond of it. I do not mind as it is very easy to, make and is very healthy. Green chilies have lots of vitamin C, Garlic, caraway seeds(Ajwain) are good for digestion and flatulence and again lemon is rich in Vitamin C and micro nutrients. The sour, hot and tangy taste makes it irresistible.

Preparation Time: 45 min

Maturing time: 7 days in summers

Serving: Makes 400gm. (approx.) pickle.

Ingredients Required For making Oil less Green Chili Pickle:

• 250 gm. Fresh Green Chilies
• 10 Lemons
• 10 Pods of Garlic (optional)
• 100 gm. Ginger
• 2-3 Teaspoons Mustard seeds (I use yellow mustard but any other will do)
• 2-3 Teaspoons Ajwain
• 2 Teaspoon Turmeric powder
• 2-3 Teaspoons Vinegar/apple cider
• Salt to taste

Directions for making Oil less Green Chili Pickle:

• Grind mustard seeds to coarse powder.
• Wash green chilies and remove the stalks. Dry them with a cloth and cut to small pieces.
• Wash and peel ginger. Dry under the sun to ensure all top moisture has evaporated.
• Cut the peeled ginger to small size pieces.
• Wash and dry the lemons. Squeeze the juice of lemons leaving two lemons for later use, and cut the lemon rind to long strips.
• Cut the remaining lemons to small pieces.
• Peel garlic and cut to long strips.
• In a stainless container take
• Green chili pieces
• Ginger pieces
• Garlic pieces
• Lemon and lemon rind pieces
• Ajwain
• Mustard seeds powder
• Salt
• Turmeric and mix nicely.
• Vinegar 
• Cover the container with the pickle mixture with a muslin cloth and keep under the sun for one day in summers and 2-3 days in winter.
• Transfer the mixture to a clean dry bottle and cover with the lid tightly.

Pickle mauring under the Sun

• Keep the bottle with the pickle mixture under the sun for 4-5 days and by the end of the week the pickle is ready.

Oilless Green Chili Pickle

Tips:

• All ingredients should be dry before pickling.
• Check for any rotten or stained part in garlic, chilies and ginger. It should be removed else the pickle will go bad.

Suggested Variations:

• If you wish to make this pickle in rainy weather then 20 ml. of vinegar should be added to the mixture along with other ingredients. (I use apple cider).
• 20-30 gm, Jaggery can be added to get the sweet, sour tangy and hot flavors.

Mango Pickle ( North Indian style )

Mango Pickle

Mango pickle with chick peas

For all the different stages mango can be used for different purposes it is correctly called The King Of Fruits.

 It can be used in raw as well as ripe form to make many things like jam, cooling drink, pickles etc. Pickles are enjoyed with every meal all over India. In Southern part of Indie Pickle and rice along with Curd is and in Northern part of India apart from Dal Chawal pickles are taken with all sort of Parathas. The method of making mango pickle and its taste varies from one part of India to other part. The recipe of mango pickle I am writing today is at the request of my very good friend Janaki. She belongs to Andhra and loves North Indian pickle, like I love her typical Andhra pickle!

Preparation Time: 60min (for preparing spices mixture and cutting mango)

Servings: Makes 1.5Kg.  g. Pickle approximately

Ingredients Required for Making Mango Pickle:

• 1kg. Raw Mango

Raw Mangoes

• 100 g, Saunf (Fennel seeds)

Saunf (Fennel seeds)

• 50 gm. Methi (Fenugreek seeds)

Methi

• 25 gm. Kalonji (Nigella seed, they are Onion seeds)

Kalonji (Nigella seeds)

• 100gm Red chili Powder

Red chili powder

• 50gm. Red Kashmiri mirchi powder

Kashmiri mirchi powder

• 50gm. Turmeric Powder

• 1Tea spoon Asafoetida

• 150gm. Salt (or to taste)

• 500 ml. Mustard seed oil

Directions for Making the Pickle:

• Cut the part of mango where the stalk connects to the fruit.

• Wash the mangoes nicely and dry them by wiping with clean cloth.

• Keep the mangoes for 30 min. under the sun on a cloth piece / tray/plastic to make sure that all outside moisture is removed.

• Cut the mangoes to the required size.

Mango pieces

• Remove the seeds.

• Take the mango pieces, 50gm. salt and turmeric powder in a steel or glass bowl and mix them thoroughly.

Mango pieces being marinated with salt and turmeric powder

• Cover with a plate and keep under sun for 5-6 hr. for marination.

• Some liquid will separate out during marination of mango pieces.

• Remove the mango pieces from the liquid and keep in a dry bowl / plate.

Marinated mango pieces

• While the mango pieces are getting marinated in salt and turmeric under the sun take 50gm. of Saunf and roast them to pinkish brown color.

Roasted Saunf (Fennel seeds

• Take 25gm. Methi seeds and roast them to pinkish color.

Roasted Methi (Fenugreek) seeds

• Roast whole of Kalonji on low flame.

• Mix the roasted and remaining (50gm. saunf and 25 gm. methi seeds) unroasted seeds and grind them to coarse powder.

Coarsely ground mixture of Fennel  (saunf)seeds and fenugreek  (methi)seeds

• Add kalonji to this powder of roasted seeds.

Kalonji added to the coarsely ground mixture of Methi and saunf seeds

• To the liquid separated from marinated mango pieces add all the powder of spices.

• Add salt, 10 gm red chili powder to the mixture and approximately 100 ml. oil and mix nicely to make homogenous paste.

Red chili powder, salt and oil added to the spices in liquid from marination of  mango pieces

Spices mixed in the liquid from marination of mango pieces

• Mix the paste of spices and marinated mango pieces nicely so as to coat all mango pieces with the spices paste.

Spices mixed with marinated mango pieces

• Cover the container in which the mango and spices mixture is, with a neat cloth piece and keep under sun for 2-3 days.

• In a wok take remaining 400ml. Mustard seed oil and heat it on high flame till it is smoking hot.

Oil in wok being heated for pickle

• Remove the wok from heat and allow it to cool for 5-10min.

• Add 1 tea spoon of saunf, red chili powder, Kashmiri mirchi powder and asafoetida and stir.

• The chili powder will get cooked in oil leaving color, taste and flavor to the oil.

Chili powder and hing cooking in oil

Oil and chili powder mixture ready to be added to the mango pieces

• Add this hot oil and chili powder mixture to the mango and spices mixture.

• Mix the contents thoroughly.

• Pickle is ready to be bottled.

Mango pickle ready for bottling

• Bottle the pickle in a glass bottle and cover it with a clean cloth piece.

• Tie the cloth piece tightly and keep it under the sun for 10-15 days.

Mango Pickle

• Pickle takes30 days minimum to mature.

Tips:

• The mango for pickle should have hard kernel otherwise the pickle will not last long.

Mango with hard kernel which should be taken for pickling

• All utensils used should be dry.

• Red chili powder should not be added to smoking hot oil, otherwise if will get burnt leaving bad taste and black color to the pickle.

• Don't use plastic bottle for the pickle as it has certain chemicals which will go into the pickle and  are harmful. 
• Do not change mustard oil with any other oil because the real taste of this pickle comes when made in mustard oil. 
• If you are getting the mangoes cut from market then after they are cut wash them first with water white vinegar mixture ( 1:10 ratio of vinegar and water) and then dry under the sun.

Suggested Variations:

• Few cloves of garlic can be added it not only changes the flavor but also acts as preservative.

• Wipe the chick peas with a clean cloth and add it to the prepared pickle before bottling, 

Mango pickle with chick pea

•  After 20-30 days the chick peas will swell up and will have all flavor of spices and sourness of raw mango.

• For one Kilo of mango 50 ml. white vinegar can be added to the pickle before bottling to increase the life of pickle.

• Whole red chilies can be added to the hot oil before adding chili powder these.