Palak pulao or spinach rice
Palak pulao or spinach rice is a super yummy and healthy rice recipe made with finely chopped spinach and long grain rice in ghee. I love topping this pulao with ghee fried garlic slices to make it even more delicious
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot with lid
Ingredients
- 300 g spinach leaves or palak finely chopped
- 250 g Basmati rice/long grain rice washed and soaked in water for 15 minutes
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1 small tomato chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 bay leaves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 2-3 cloves
- 2-3 cardamom
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 dried red chilis
- 1 tsp garam masala powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 2-3 cloves garlic finely sliced
- 4 tbsp ghee
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat a pan with a two tablespoons of ghee and add the whole spices. When aromatic, add the onions, half of the salt and sauté until onions turn light golden. Add ginger garlic paste and cook for couple minutes more
- Then add the chopped tomatoes, chilis and cook until they turn mushy, add splashes of water in case the pan dries out. Throw in all the spice powders, mix well. Add a few tablespoons of water and cook the masalas until the ghee separates
- Add the chopped palak or spinach and stir fry on high heat, until the moisture evaporates and the raw smell of the vegetable goes away. Next, add the drained rice grains, mix well and add the salt*
- Pour 500g (double the quantity of rice) of water and cook over medium high flame until the water from the surface dries out. Then lower the flame to a minimum and cook covered for 7 minutes and remove from heat. Keep covered
- In a separate small pan, heat remaining ghee and add the sliced garlic. Fry until it turns golden. Drizzle the garlic and ghee over the prepared rice, do not mix. Keep covered for 7-10 minutes so that the garlic flavor can infuse
- Remove lid, fluff the rice using a fork and gently mix without breaking the rice grains. Serve your delicious spinach rice or palak pulao with raita or chilled yoghurt. Enjoy!
Notes
- *Do a taste check before adding the salt as spinach by nature also tends to be salty
- To make a vegan version of the pulao, substitute the ghee with any neutral oil
- You could also pair some crunchy popadoms (papad) with the rice. It is an enjoyable combination, as well
- Measure the water in the same container you measure the rice. Water to be added is always twice the quantity of the rice
- g - grams
- tsp - teaspoon
- tbsp - tablespoon