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One pot meal recipes in India often involve the pressure cooker. Here is a simple veg pulao recipe that can be cooked very quickly in a pressure cooker.
The first cookbook that I have ever read is the cookbook that came with my pressure cooker. Ok, it’s not a regular cookbook with fancy pictures but just the users’ manual with some Indian and continental recipes.
Every household I know owns more than one of those pressure cookers. Our kitchens are incomplete without them. They are our best friends in the kitchen. And some pressure cookers today come with the mandatory users’ manual with some easy to cook recipes, mostly one pot meal recipes.
These one pot meal recipes were taken from different parts of India and abroad. They also provided a list of spices and food terms and it was my handy companion to know what people are cooking. Well, I came to know the difference between a soup and a stew from the users’ manual. Otherwise, where else a teenager girl from an almost village-like town can learn about continental food?
To say that I loved the manual will not be sufficient. I adored the manual. It was my door to the world where the same ingredients were used to cook in various cuisines. It was my first encounter with the world of food and it intrigued me to learn more about the food. Our food shows then were limited to a one-hour weekly program of Tarla Dalal, and I used to stare at the cover of the manual to learn how they decorate the food. I still remember that I would insist that my mother cook from any recipe just like the manual had.
The first thing that I loved about these recipes in the manual was that the instructions that were given to cook food in the pressure cooker were one pot meals. Till now, I remain sucker for quick and one pot meal recipes. That manual taught me to cook so many dishes that I have lost its count. I can still remember me going through pages after pages to read more and more about cuisines from other parts of the world.
When I learned to cook, the first thing that I tried from the manual was the veg pulao recipe.
Pulao is an Indian dish which is basically herb and spice infused rice on your plate. Depending on the availability, the ingredients of the veg pulao recipe can be varied from one dish to another.
Although you can cook any pulao in your pressure cooker, I prefer to cook vegetarian pulao in it. It takes hardly 7 minutes to cook the veg pulao recipe in a pressure cooker. Here is the recipe that I used. This pulao can be eaten with any curry of your choice. It is a wholesome meal and comes quite handy when you are too tired or busy to cook a full meal.
Prep Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 55 min
1 cup basmati rice
Whole spices
Two large size onions
1 teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste
Vegetables of your choice, diced and cubed
Ghee/oil, and salt
Wash and soak the rice for at least 30 minutes.
Now heat ghee in pressure cooker.
Temper the oil with whole spices.
Now fry the onions (cut into thin slices) till they turn soft.
Add the vegetables, salt and ginger garlic paste and saute till the masalas leave their raw smell.
Add the rice and stir well.
Add required water and close the lid of the cooker.
Bring it to full pressure and keep for five minutes.
Now switch off the heat and let it sit until the steam is released.
Your veg pulao is ready in no time.
Note: You can add dry fruits along with the vegetables.
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Published here earlier.
Image credit the author.
Header image source: By Nandhinikandhasamy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Puspanjalee is Geographer-turned-Writer. She writes about Geography, Food, Digital Marketing, Personal Management, Digital Writing, Books etc. read more...
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