Super Green Hariyali Pulao
Quick and easy winter special super green hariyali pulao with loaded veggies and amazing flavors made in an Instant pot.
I am a sucker for rice, especially spicy and loaded with bunch of veggies. Colder months call for quick comforting meals and what can be any better than a one pot rice dish?!?! I love playing around with different flavor rice dishes, and this one is one of my absolute favorite flavor combo. Super green hariyali pulao with whole bunch of lilva (fresh/frozen beans from pods like papdi, val, tuver, peas etc). Not only lilva, but this dish also has lot of greens like spinach and scallions. As well as spices like garlic, ginger, thai green chilis and some dry spices.
This Super Green Hariyali Pulao is packed with fiber, nutrients and amazing flavors. You can simply eat it by itself or pair it with either plain yogurt or the best yet, Gujarati Kadhi! I personally like making this rice dish in an Instant Pot as it always hold the perfect rice consistency with 5 minute cook time. However you can use any pressure cooker you like, be it Indian kind with whistles. And stove top pots are also just as good options to cook this rice in.
As I mentioned above, I love using different type of frozen lilva for this rice. I say frozen because it is a bit harder to find fresh lilva here in the States and also because frozen ones are more convenient than prepping the fresh ones. You can use any type of lilva you want, for example Surti papdi, val lilva, tuver lilva, or simply just frozen peas. Use just one kind or you can mix few different kinds all together.
This rice is one of my absolutely favorite during colder months. And the reason being, it is spicy, cozy, warm and packed with lot of goodies that takes minimal effort to make. I highly suggest you try this recipe and pair it with my Gujarati Kadhi to get the best experience. It is truly a warm cozy hug to your belly. If you end up making it and liking it, leave me a comment below. Or simply tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroots. I would love to get your feedback on this recipe.
Happy & Healthy Eating!
Super Green Hariyali Pulao
Ingredients
- 2 oil
- 2 ghee
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 whole cloves
- 3 whole peppercorn
- 1 whole dry red chili
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp hing
- ¾ cup chopped onions
- ½ cup chopped green peppers
- ½ cup white part of chopped scallions save green part for ganishing
- 2 raw baby spinach tightly packed 2 cups
- 1½ cup Choice of frozen lilva (either mix of diff kind or only one kind) lilva like surati papdi, val lilva, tuver lilva, peas
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp chopped thai green chili
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp kashmiri red chili powder
- 2 tsp Cumin Coriander Powder (dhana jiru powder)
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2¼ cup water
Instructions
- Wash and soak long grain basmati rice for 15 minutes.
- Blench spinach by bringing some water to boil. Once boiling, add in tightly packed 2 cups of baby spinach in boiling water, wilt the spinach for just a minute or so, then take out the spinach and place it in ice cold water for 2-3 minutes. Strain the water out completely then add blenched spinach into a blender with 1 cups of water. Blend it to smooth liquid, keep it aside.
- This step is optional, you can simply add frozen lilva directly to Instant pot however I like to boil it with water and oil just for couple of minutes to remove any funky smell. Bring some water to boil in a pot with pinch of salt and 2 tsp of oil. Once boiling, add in frozen peas, frozen val lilva and frozen surati papdi lilva. Bring it to boil and strain out the water using a strainer. Keep lilva aside. This helps with any funky smell frozen lilva might have.
- Put instant pot on saute mode. Add in oil and ghee. If using Indian pressure cooker, everything remains the same with 2 whistles on medium heat at the end.
- Once ghee is melted, add in whole spices and cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds start to fragrant and turn deeper in color, add in asafetida.
- Add in chopped onions, saute for a minute. Then add in minced garlic, grated ginger and finely chopped thai green chilis. Mix in and cook for 30-40 seconds. Or until raw smell of garlic is gone.
- Add in chopped green peppers and white part of scallions. Mix well and cook for 30-40 seconds.
- Add in other dry spices mentioned above along with salt. Mix well and cook for 30-40 seconds.
- Add in thawed/boiled lilva to the IP, mix well, cook for a minute.
- Add in soaked basmati rice WITHOUT any water. Mix well and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add in spinach pure from blender to instant pot. Rinse the blender with additional 1¼ cup of water and add it to the instant pot as well. At this point, the IP should have 2¼ cups of water in total (1 cup you blend spinach with + 1¼ cup you rinsed the bender with).
- Add in 1 hipping tbsp of ghee and squeeze of lime/lemon. Stir and bring it to simmer.
- Once simmering, close IP lid (or Indian pressure cooker lid), seal it and cook rice on high pressure for 5 minutes. Then do natural pressure release 5 more minutes. After that, do quick release. If using Indian pressure cooker, do 2 whistles on medium heat, then turn the heat off and let it cool down.
- Garnish it with cilantro and green part of scallions. Serve it with pippin hot Gujarati Kadhi, side of papad and kachumber!