The food choice is always a huge decision for me when I run out of time. Some times I cannot decide on what to cook for lunch, the real food of the day. Till late in the morning I would be deep down in to blog-food preparation and photography. Because you know, I need to rush to capture the beauty of food before the natural light disappears. I almost always long for diffused light in which my food elegantly shines and appears pretty to the camera lens. Like a normal blogger, I have to go back and forth to come up with some decent looking photographs. During the progression of food preparation to photo shoot, time just flies away and I get quite a little time for my every day meal preparation. Next comes the question What shall I cook for my meal today? How about flavorful Mint pulao?
Yes, one pot meal kind of recipes like pulao have always been easy for me. Because it’s quick and it’s side dish say onion tomato raita can be whipped in a flash 10 minutes. Most flavors of the pulao come from spices like ginger, green chilly, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf and cardamom. Few of them get in to grinding and few in tempering. Based on that the deliciousness of pulao differ.
Ever since I started making this mint pulao, I loved it’s flavors. The mint flavor is just a magic, it’s neither over-powering nor subtle. But just right. I used the combination of potato and peas for mint pulao and they very well blend with mint flavors. You can even add carrots to uplift it’s deliciousness. Above all the golden roasted cashews in every bite is too awesome.
So bring it on as your lunch today and feel good about your decision.
Ingredients
- Uncooked basmati rice- 1 cup
- Fresh mint leaves- 1/2 cup pressed
- Fresh or frozen peas- 1/4 cup
- Potatoes- 2 nos.
- Onion- 1 no.
- Green chillies- 2 nos.
- Finely chopped ginger- 2 tsp
- Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
- Salt- 1 tsp
- Lemon- Half
- Garam masala powder- 1 tsp
- Cooking oil- 4 tsp
- Bay leaf- 2 nos.
- Cloves- 3 nos.
- Cinnamon- 2" piece
- Cardamom- 2 nos.
Instructions
- Wash and peel off the potatoes and onion. Chop the potatoes in to big cubes and onion to slices. Keep aside till use.
- Rinse and soak the rice in enough water for about 20 to 30 minutes.
- Take the mint leaves, green chillies and ginger in a mixer. Squeeze lemon over and grind to fine puree. Include water for ease of grinding.
- Heat a pressure cooker with all the tempering ingredients. Saute for a while and then include onion slices. Saute till they turn translucent.
- Include potato cubes, peas and turmeric powder. Stir until everything mixes up. Next pour in the mint plus spices puree.
- Continue sauteing till the puree coats well on veggies. Drain water from rice and add to the sauteed veggies. Give a quick mix.
- Add 1.5 cup of water, garam masala powder, salt and close the lid. Pressure cook for 3 whistles in medium flame and switch off. Let the pressure subside, then open the lid, fluff and serve.
- Flavorful one pot meal mint pulao is ready to serve with raita. I served with carrot raita.
- Soaking rice helps in fluffy, grain separated pulao. So do not skip soaking it.
- When you grind mint leaves with lemon, it retains the green color. So I recommend it.
- You can include other veggies like carrot to make it more healthy.
- The mint flavor was just right not overpowering. So I recommend sticking to the quantity.
