Palak Pulao with Tomato Raitha

All greens are rich in iron. So I use greens a lot in my cooking. Today I tried this Palak/Spinach pulao. The taste was awesome. My hubby and my daughter loved it a lot. Felt I might have added 1 more cup of spinach. Other than that everything was so good and very delicious.

Also I wondered what raitha would accompany this pulao to its best. So thought of trying some spicy raitha as the pulao was very mild. Then I thought of using tomato and onion together in my raitha. It made a very good accompaniment.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Onion - 1 (chopped lengthwise)
Spinach/Palak - 2 cups (finely chopped)
Milk - 1/2 cup
Green Chillies - 2 or 3 (slitted)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Butter/Ghee - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Tomato Raitha:

Curd/Yogurt - 2 cups
Onion - 1 (chopped lengthwise)
Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)
Cilantro/Corriander leaves - few (to garnish)
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

1) Soak basmati rice for about 15 to 20 mins. Heat a pan and add butter/ghee. Add the soaked rice and roast for about 2 to 3 mins. Keep it aside.

2) Now heat a pan. Add oil. Also add cumin seeds and chopped onion.

3) Saute it and add ginger garlic paste. Then add the slitted green chillies.

4) Then add chopped palak. Saute it for 2 about mins.

5) Then add the roasted rice.

6) Mix it well and add the milk. Also add water and salt.

7) Cook it and your pulao is ready.

8) For making raitha mix all ingredients except salt and let it soak for about 30 mins. Add salt just before you start to eat.

Delicious and healthy palak pulao is ready now.

Soya Vegetable Pulao

Pulao is one common recipe loved by most of us. This pulao is very tasty and also very simple to make. With any vegetables of your choice, this pulao can be made by adding soya chunks to it.

Soya chunks or soya nuggets are commonly known as vegetable meat and is rich in protein. It is also known as Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP).

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 3 cups
Soya chunks - 15 to 20
Mixed vegetables - 2 cups (chopped carrot, mushroom, bell pepper/capsicum, green beans)
Onion - 1 (finely chopped)
Green chilli - 2 or 3 (slitted)
Bay leaves - 1
Cinnamon stick - 2 small pieces
Fennel seeds (Peruncheragam) - 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Curd - 1/4 cup
Chilli powder - 1 tsp (can add 1 tsp more if you want it more spicy)
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil/Ghee - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Cilantro/Corriander leaves - to garnish

Note:
a) Rinse the rice and soak in water for about 15 minutes.
b) Soak soya chunks in hot water for 5 mins and sqeeze the water.
c) Cut about 2 cups of vegetables of your choice.

Method:

1) Heat a pan and add oil/ghee. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, fennel seeds and chopped onion.

2) Saute it for a minute and add ginger garlic paste. Then add the vegetables, soya and green chillies.

3) Add the curd, chilli powder, garam masala powder. Mix it very well.

4) Add the soaked rice. Mix it well, add 4 cups of water and salt.

5) Pressure cook it for about 2 whistles or cook in your electric cooker and finally garnish with cilantro.

Tasty soya vegetable pulao is now ready to taste. Goes very well with onion raitha.