Vegetables Pulav is a perfect recipe for any potluck or party. It’s very simple, easy and hassle free recipe. You can use your favourite and seasonal veggies to make this pulav. Serve it with any side dish like gravy or raita and papad. I often make this pulav on special occasions and serve with simple raita, fried papad and spicy gravy. If you fancy vegan pulav then just skip use of ghee/clarified butter, use vegetable oil instead.

Let’s check out my simple recipe of Pulav. I have used basmati rice for this recipe. And always use basmati only, it will give nice texture to the recipe. I usually don’t add fried cashews but they go very well in this recipe. Commonly used vegetables for Pulav are carrots, green peas, beans and capsicums. Along with these veggies, you can add other seasonal veggies of choice. Also, Paneer tastes amazing in this recipe.

Following proportion will yield Pulav for 4-5 people.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups basmati rice

1/2 cup diced carrots

1/2 cup chopped french beans

1/2 cup chopped babycorn

1/2 cup green peas

1/2 cup chopped green capsicum

2 slit chillies

1 big red onion

2 bayleaves

1 black cardamom

3-4 green cardamom

1.5 tsp cumin seeds

5-7 black peppercorns

3-5 cloves

2 star anise

3 cups water

1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter

Salt as per taste

Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

Start with chopping your veggies and keep them aside. Soak basmati rice for 30 minutes, it will help to cook nice and fluffy rice. The key to make perfect rice is use double amount of water. I have used 3 cups of water for 1.5 cups of rice.

In a hot pan add ghee and once ghee starts melting add whole spices – cumin seeds, bayleaves, black & green cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns, star anise. Quickly stir them and they will release aroma. At this point add sliced onions- don’t need finely chopped onions, just slice them and it goes perfect in the recipe. Next add sliced chillies and your veggies one by one into the pan, mix them well.

Stir everything well and let it cook for few minutes. Cook veggies approximately 60-70% and then add soaked rice along with salt. Once rice is added, give a quick stir carefully. Add water and once water starts bubbling turn heat on medium flame. Cover the pan and let it cook on low flame. After 15 minutes, rice should be 80-90% cooked. Quickly check the status of rice and if required drizzle some water and cover it again. Once rice is 90-95% cooked, switch off the heat but keep the lid on. Let rice gets cooked completely in its own steam.

I used boiled peas hence added them when my rice was almost cooked. Incase, you are using fresh peas then add at the beginning along with other veggies.

Once rice is cooked, remove the lid let it cool down slightly. Optionally, you can drizzle some ghee on top. Once rice is ready, do not mix or stir it. It might break the rice, instead scoop out the rice to keep its texture intact.

Our Vegetable Pulav is ready to serve 🙂 Garnish it with freshly chopped green coriander.

Key points for cooking perfect fluffy rice

• Soak rice for 30 minutes in water at room temperature.
• Rice to water proportion should be 1:2.
• Once rice and water added to the pan, keep it on high flame until water is boiled. Once water starts bubbling, turn the heat low. Cover the pan and let it cook on low heat.
• Cook rice around 85-90% on heat and then switch off the heat. Rice will cook in its own steam.
• When rice is completely cooked remove the lid and gently toss it. Let it cool down a bit without the lid. It will evaporates any excess moisture and each cooked grain will separates out to give a nice texture.
• Also, after adding rice to veggies, do not stir else it will break the rice.

I hope this helps to cook perfect rice. This technique is helpful for any rice recipe 🙂

Serve this pulav with your favourite side dish. It’s a perfect main course for any occasion.

Happy Cooking 😍