The Magical Ingredients for a Wholesome Life From the Heart of my Home: Pulao

Pulao - simple and comforting food that you can whip up easily for a weeknight meal or weekend brunch, lunch or dinner, is quite filling and satisfying too. Though it is made with rice, other grains work well too. Once you have the veggies chopped, it all go-go to make it quick. Sometimes chopping can be time-consuming. When you have the veggies ready, it sure is a blessing! Frozen and canned veggies are great and give a helping hand to you in the kitchen to fix a meal quickly. Yes, that's the idea for this month in #FoodieExtravaganza! We have to make great food "Starting with a Can". One need not think "Oh! canned food!" It is possible to whip up a fancy meal starting with a can.

Initially, I thought to make pulao only. But when I was checking my pantry, I did find a few other cans sitting in there. Time to use them...and made a complete meal with those. I don't usually buy canned goods. Have reduced those. Once upon a time, they were usuals. But during the lockdown and stay-at-home time, I had a few canned goods to minimize the grocery trips. Canned tomatoes make great tomato rice, soups, and the different bean varieties can be made into yummy curries and soups. The options are innumerable. Now, most of the time I buy Chaokoh coconut milk (for quick recipes) and cut baby corn (I don't find fresh baby corn in stores).

For today's recipe, I used canned mixed vegetables, mixed beans salad, coconut milk, cut baby corn, canned mango pulp. I made vegetable pulao, baby corn kurma, raita, mango lassi all in 45 minutes and it was a great weekend lunch. Since the veggies in the can are already soft, the cooking time gets a little reduced. Soak the rice for 10 minutes, chop the onion, garlic, ginger, potatoes, and cauliflower, etc... Start with the rice and curry. When they are getting ready, make the onion raita and the lassi. When the rice is cooking, there is plenty of time to fix a couple of sides. Though I prepped up the salad with a couple of lettuce and cucumbers, I forgot to picture them together. I am sharing the recipe for pulao today. Soon, I will share the recipe for quick baby corn kurma/curry (which is great with rice noodles too!), and our all-time favorite mango lassi.

Wendy of A Day in the life on a Farm, is hosting this month's "Starting with a Can". Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page.

Ingredients

Serves 4 people

Canned mixed veggies - 1- 14oz can

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Cauliflower florets - 1/2 cup

Potato - 1 small, diced

Basmati rice - 1.5 cups

Oil - 3 tbsp

Onion - 1.5 cups, sliced and halved

Ginger - 2-in. piece

Garlic - 4 cloves

Thai chili - 4

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 2-in, piece

Cardamom -2

Cloves - 4

Cumin -1/2 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1.5 cups, plus for soaking

Salt - 1.5 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Mint leaves - 1/4 cup

Cilantro - 2 tbsp, for garnish

Water - 1 and 3/4 cups

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 10 minutes. Grind garlic, cloves, two Thai chilies to a paste with a tablespoon of water and set aside.

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add cumin, fennel seeds, cinnamon, bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, and sauté. Add onions and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the ground ginger-garlic-chili paste and continue sautéing for another 2 minutes till it is cooked and the raw smell disappears. Add the rice, sauté for a minute. Add the potatoes, cauliflower, mint leaves, two slit Thai chilies, and sauté for a minute.

Add salt, turmeric, water, and coconut milk. When it begins to boil add the canned veggies. Lightly mix, cover and cook for 5 minutes.

More than half the liquid would have been absorbed by now. Gently fluff the rice, lower the flame to low, cover, and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Switch off the flame. Fluff with a fork gently and leave it covered for another 5-7 minutes.