Whenever I have lot of different vegetables in stock, I think of preparing vegetable pulao.  It is well content to be served as one-dish meal. Again one can serve it with any other side dish. What attracts me most about this pulao is its colourful appearance due to presence of different vegetables in one platter.

Bengali’s biggest festival “Dura puja” is at our door step. During puja, we usually have vegetarian dishes on Sashthi and Ashtami. This vegetable pulao with dam aloo, either Bengali or Kashmiri style, can be a great combination for Puja lunch menu. 🙂

Ingredients to serve 5 :

1. Basmati rice – 2 cups
2. Thinly sliced carrot – 2/3 cup
3. Finely chopped green bean – ½ cup
4. Small pieces of cauliflower – 1 cup
5. Green peas – ½ cup
6. Ginger (finely chopped) – 1 tbspoon
7. Cashew nut – 1/3 cup
8. Raisin – ½ cup
9. Green cardamom – 6 pods (opened)
10. Clove – 6
11. Cinnamon stick – 2” (broken into small pieces)
12. Bay leaf – 2
13. Black pepper corn – 8-10 (optional)
14. Ghee (clarified butter) – 4 tbspoon (recipe link)
15. Hot water – just more than 4 cups
16. Salt & Sugar to taste

Procedure :

Rinse the rice 2-3 times with water and then let it soak in water for minimum 10 minutes. Drain the water and spread it over a plate to become dry.

Take a large vessel/frying pan and melt ghee in it over medium flame. Add cinnamon, cardamom, clove, bay leaf, pepper corn and chopped ginger, saute for a while.

Then add all the vegetables except green peas, sprinkle over some salt and fry till they get cooked half.

Then add green peas, cashew nut and raisins and again fry till the cashew nuts turn light brown.

Now add the rice and fry till the rice pops out from the pan.

Now add hot water. As the water stats boiling add salt & sugar, give the mixture a good stir. Let it boil for 4-5 minutes and then cover the pan with a lid and put the gas on low.

Put the gas off as the rice get cooked.

Spread the pulao in a large serving bowl or on a plate if you are not serving immediately. Otherwise within few minutes the rice makes lump and lose its neatness.

I served it with Kashimiri Dam Aloo. You can serve it with any side dish of your choice.

Note :

1. If you don’t like to use ghee, then you can use cooking oil instead of that.