Palak Rice Recipe

There are a number of ways in which you can prepare this Palak rice or Palak Pulav. I had bought a bunch of spinach last week and when I started searching for a rice recipe with palak, I found so many versions but no two recipes were alike. So, decided to make it my own way and came up with this following recipe. Believe you me, it tasted yummy!

Ingredients:

For the puree

Palak (spinach) - 2 cups chopped

Ginger, Garlic

Green Chillies - 3,4

For the seasoning:

Onions - 2

Tomato - 2

Mustard, Cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp

Curry leaves, bay leaves

Coriander powder - 1/2 tbsp

Cumin powder - 1/2 tbsp

Garam Masala - 1/4 tbsp

Salt - as per taste

Procedure:

1. Boil the chopped spinach for 2-3 min, when it cools down a bit, add it to the blender. Puree it along with  green chillies, garlic, ginger, salt and little water. Wash the rice and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add mustard, cumin seeds, curry leaves. Once they start spluttering add bay leaves, cloves. Then add chopped onions and let them cook for 3-4 mins. Add chopped tomatoes. 

3. Now is the time to add spinach puree, cook it till the oil starts separating. Add coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala,

4. Add the rice, mix well, add water and cook the rice in the way you prepare any other rice.(3 whistles)

5. Serve it with raita

Coconut rice

Coconut rice, another very simple, easy and yummy rice recipe after Tomato rice. South Indians can make anything and everything out of rice I must say.

Ingredients :

Rice - 2 cups

Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup

Oil - 2 tbsp (use coconut oil for extra flavor)

Red chillies - 2

Green chilles - 4 to 5(as per taste)

Mustard

Cummin seeds

Chana Dal -1 tbsp

Urad Dal - 1tbsp

Hing( Asafetida) - a pinch (Optional)

Roasted Cashew nuts - 2 spoon

Chopped ginger - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - few

salt to taste

sugar - 1/2 tbsp

Corainder leaves - 1 spoon

Procedure :

1. Put oil in a pan. Add all the ingredients one by one, in the order of red chillies, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chana dal, curry leaves, urad dal, green chillies.

2. After few seconds add roasted cashew nuts. Then is the turn of chopped ginger, salt to taste. Then add the coconut powder and mix well for 2 min. You get a nice aroma. Add coriander leaves.

3. Now add the cooked rice and mix real good. Yummy Coconut rice is ready for serving!

Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice, one of the easiest and tastiest rice recipe in South India. The best thing about this dish is it can be prepared from freshly prepared rice and also if you have left over rice, you can fix up lunch or dinner instantly.

Ingredients :

Rice - 2 cups (freshly prepared/left over)

Onion - 1

Green chillies - 3,4 (if you want more spicy, you can add more)

Red Chillies - 2

Tomatoes - 4

Mustard seeds

Cumin seeds

Urad dal - 1 tbsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Chopped ginger - 1 sp

Curry leaves

Asofetida( Hing) - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Ghee - 2 spoons

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparations :

1. Prepare rice and keep it aside. Take a thick bottomed pan. Put muster seeds, cumin seeds in the hot ghee. When they start spluttering add rest of the ingredients one by one except tomatoes.

2. When the onions become tender add tomatoes and mix well. (If you want the tomato rice to be more spicier you can add pinch of red chilli powder, garam masala, else you can omit ).

3. Close the lid and let it cook on low flame till all the juice has released from tomatoes and all the masala is cooked well.

3. Now its time to add the rice and mix well. Switch off the heat. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Now it is ready to be served. Wait, how about some mouthwatering, crispy, fluffy Vadas to go with our savoring Tomato rice.

Here is the quick recipe for Medu Vada/Uddina Vada.

Urad dal - 1 cup (soaked for 6 hrs atleast)

Chopped ginger - 1tbsp

Chopped Green chillies - 1 tbsp

Black pepper

Onion(optional)

Grind the soaked urad dal without adding water (or very little water in case not possible to grind) . Adding more water can spoil the batter. Add pepper, chopped ginger and green chillies

Mix the batter very well so that it gets aerated well. You can do a small test here to see whether your Vadas will come perfectly or not.

After mixing the batter, put a small lump of batter in a bowl of water. If it floats, your batter is perfect and can expect good vadas. If it sinks.....then.... :( Don't worry still you can fix it. It needs more of mixing and aeration.

Just for your curiosity, add a small lump as soon as u take out the batter from mixi and another lump after adding all the ingredients and mixing well. You can see the difference.

Now take the batter, make a whole at the center and deep fry in the oil till they turn brown. Tasty, Crisp and fluffy Vadas are ready!