Breakfast item: Vegetable Pulao

4 cloves

Ingredients:

2 cups sona masoori rice – washed and drained

1 1/2 tbsps ghee

2 green cardamoms

2” cinnamom stick

1 star anise

2 bay leaves

very small pinch nutmeg pwd

2 onions finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 sm thumb of ginger, chopped finely

1 sm green chili, chopped

1 1/2 tbsps of fresh mint leaves, finely chopped

1 1/2 tbsps fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups chopped mixed vegetables (beans, green peas, and carrots)

1 tomato, chopped

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

3 1/4 cups water

salt to taste

8-10 cashew nuts (lightly roasted in ghee till golden brown)

coriander leaves for garnish

1 Heat ghee in a vessel, add bay leaves, cloves, and star anise and stir for a few seconds. Add the sliced onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies. Saute the onions till they turn transparent.
2 Add the coriander and mint leaves and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped mixed vegetables and cook on medium for 4-5 minutes.
3 Add a chopped tomato and stir fry for a minute. Add the drained rice and saute for 2 minutes.
4 Add the coconut milk and water. Bring to a boil.
5 Add salt and nutmeg powder, cardamom, cinnamon, and reduce heat to low-medium and cook covered with lid.
6 Cook for three minutes and turn off heat but leave lid on and wait for 10 minutes.
7 Separately roast cashews in pan with a little ghee or dry or in a toaster oven. Then add the roasted cashews and garnish with cilantro.

Serve and enjoy

17 thoughts on “Breakfast item: Vegetable Pulao”

  2. Would love to make this, but,

    The coconut milk is the watery substance inside of a fresh coconut? Or rather the “vegan way” of making nutmilk out of a cracked coconut i.e. blending coconut in water and then using the drained water? The water straight from the coconut in from dutch supermarkets is not always very tasty and often just a very small amount aswell: as the coconuts have ripened a lot.. the hard white part is thick with little remaining liquid. Ofcourse we have cans and boxes with coconutmilk, but I reckon that’s not an option.

    If only I could grow some in my backyard….. 😉

    Reply ↓

    • I think the human made nutmilk is proparbly very rich in fats whereas I reckon the water is mostly minerals and sugar. Also, coconut water is transparent whereas the milk made from the nut is white. So nutmilk is heavier and more kapha producing and thus should not be used. At least not during kapha/breakfast time. Allthough.. it says to use “thick coconutmilk” so perhaps it’s ok?

      I could try buying a coconut and use the water in it. See if it produces enough liquid for the dish. And then do that once in a while as a treat (doing it more than once in a while will be costly due to the little coco water and the high prices of the nuts). Or just accept that coconut palms don’t grow here and make another of the many breakfast dishes here.

      The whole process of coconut ripening is interesting. Harvest them young and they have soft flesh (or no flesh at all) and the milk can even be soury sometimes. Wait for it to ripen and the flesh gets a bit thicker and harder and the milk gets sweeter. Wait longer and the water gets less and the skin gets thicker. I wonder where the hard nut-part gets the fat from if not from the water… I guess it’s just another one of natures secrets 😉

    • On it! Could this be ok for winter though? For example green beans are really not in season here now. And naturally peas would only be available in their dried form. But hey, I’m blending it all allready anyway.. as sona masoori, moong dal, coconut, peanuts etc. don’t grow here either, ever.

      This type of question I have mentioned before regarding green houses and if that would still count as “in season”… to which you answered:

      “Yes, hot houses grow stuff out of season. Not always but…. need to have the knowledge of what is in season and for the season.”

      With this recipe I’m in doubt, hence my question. It kinda feels odd trying to eat food grown in the season and then eat all kinds of things that are not, lol.

    • Lol! Have been googling looking for what the “sm” could stand for which you use to describe the thumb of ginger and green chili. Thinking it might be some type of US meassurement.. Could it be sentimeter ;P? The atom samarium ;)? Untill my father figured it must stand for small. 1 small thumb of ginger. 1 small green chili. Am lucky my father is good with words. Now all of that is out of the way all I need is get myself some beans and then finally make the thing, lol. My mint leafs in my garden survived the mild winter (at least one thing I got locally, haha) and I got 2 sloshing my cocos online. And then finally make the thing.

    • 2 rotten coconuts. I made the pulao with the milk and figured out after. Coconutmilk was fermented. Dish was tasty either way, but definitely wouldn’t have put the milk in had I known.

    • Second shop. Second time I have rotten coconut.

      Just wanted to say I read in my copy/translation of the Astanga Sangraha that coconut water “increases digestive power” (!). Who would’ve thought. I can’t imagine the milk made of the nut would do the same. Still don’t know what you mean by THICK coconut milk though. Perhaps its a later stage of ripening of the coconut instead of a very young one with barely any solid-nut-formation inside. Anyway, will see if I can get my hands on a good coconut. If it has unfermented milk that would be a victory in and of itself so wether it’s thick or thin I’ll leave up to the coconut for now ;).

    • Thank you. That clarifies.

      Honestly, these cocos drive me nuts. I’ve bougth 7 of them in 4 different stores and I have had ONE (!) that I thought was ok and not fermented or rotten. I can imagine people buy and eat them anyway cause they simply don’t know what they should taste like. With one I was in doubt and my parents tasted the water and didn’t find anything wrong. I didn’t take the shot, it tasted weird, both water and nut. Now 2 days later the fungus can be seen in it. Some others had clear mold in them from the start. These are all brown coconuts, but I have another shot of ordering a tender one wrapped in plastic. We’ll see.

    • Thank you. That clarifies.

      Honestly, these cocos drive me nuts. I’ve bougth 7 of them in 4 different stores and I have had ONE (!) that I thought was ok and not fermented or rotten. I can imagine people buy and eat them anyway cause they simply don’t know what they should taste like. With one I was in doubt and my parents tasted the water and didn’t find anything wrong. I didn’t take the shot, it tasted weird, both water and nut. Now 2 days later the fungus can be seen in it. Some others had clear mold in them from the start. These are all brown coconuts, but I have another shot of ordering a tender one wrapped in plastic. We’ll see.

    • Thank you. That clarifies.

      Honestly, these cocos drive me nuts. I’ve bougth 7 of them in 4 different stores and I have had ONE (!) that I thought was ok and not fermented or rotten. I can imagine people buy and eat them anyway cause they simply don’t know what they should taste like, but honestly I do not understand why they even dare sell the stuff. With one I was in doubt and my parents tasted the water and didn’t find anything wrong. I didn’t take the shot, it tasted weird, both water and nut. Now 2 days later the fungus can be seen in it. Some others had clear mold in them from the start. These are all brown coconuts, but I have another shot of ordering a tender one wrapped in plastic. We’ll see.

  4. Would this be suitable for a pre-sunset dinner? It’s quite an elaborate process to make in the morning time. for me.

    Reply ↓

    • Ah I thought it might be too light as I thought that you’d eat more during vata time than during kapha time… as you’d want to balance the lightness of vata. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that it is not just “vata time”, but also the time before one rests/studies and then goes to bed.. and you don’t actually need a lot of fuel.

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