R015Matta Rice, Properly Cooked
Kerala's parboiled red rice, by absorption and by draining
Recipes › Rice, Grains and the Grain Question in Practice
R019
Vegetable Pulao with Jeerakasala
One pot, 360 g of vegetables, and the aromatic rice of Wayanad
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringThe vegetable-to-rice ratio inverted — 360 g of vegetables against 200 g of dry rice, where a restaurant pulao runs the other way — and the fat held at 17 g for four, with green peas standing in as the plate's pulse.
A pulao is the easiest dish in this chapter to turn into a plate rather than a pile, because the vegetables cook in the same pot and no one thinks it strange. The trick is to cut them so they survive: batons and thick coins rather than dice, going in at the same time as the rice, so they are cooked through and still distinct when the lid comes off. Green peas do double duty here as vegetable and as the pulse the book asks for on every rice plate, at 120 g cooked for four.
Before you start: Cut all the vegetables before you light the flame, and cut them the right size — carrots in 4 cm batons the thickness of a pencil, beans in 3 cm lengths. Diced vegetables disintegrate in a covered pot in 14 minutes.
Vegetable Pulao with Jeerakasala
Active 20 minutes Total 45 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓12 g (2½ tsp) coconut oil
- ✓5 g (1 tsp) ghee
- ✓16 g (about 11) cashew nuts, halved
- ✓4 cm cinnamon, 3 cloves, 3 green cardamom pods, 1 bay leaf
- ✓2 g (1 tsp) cumin seed
- ✓100 g (about 10) shallots, thinly sliced
- ✓12 g (a 2.5 cm piece) ginger, finely chopped
- ✓10 g (about 3 cloves) garlic, finely chopped
- ✓12 g (about 2) green chillies, slit
- ✓200 g (1 cup) jeerakasala (kaima) rice, rinsed and drained
- ✓120 g (about 1 large) carrot, in pencil-thick 4 cm batons
- ✓120 g (1 cup) green beans, in 3 cm lengths
- ✓120 g (¾ cup) green peas, fresh or frozen
- ✓1 g (½ tsp) black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
- ✓3 g (½ tsp) M07 the 70:30 salt
- ✓380 ml water
- ✓15 g (3 tbsp) coriander and mint leaves, chopped
Allergens: Milk, tree nuts (cashew).
Equipment: Heavy 3-litre pan with a tight lid. Substitute: a pressure cooker at 2 whistles then 3 minutes on the lowest flame; the vegetables come out softer than ideal.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 313 kcal |
| Protein | 8.2 g |
| Fibre | 6.1 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 51.1 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 57.2 g |
| Sugars | 6.7 g |
| Fat | 6.7 g |
| Saturated fat | 3.7 g |
| Sodium | 240 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Heat the coconut oil and ghee in the pan over a medium flame. Fry the cashews to pale straw, 40–60 seconds, and lift them out.
- Add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay and cumin and stir 30–45 seconds, until the cumin darkens a shade and smells nutty.
- Add the shallots and cook on a medium-low flame, stirring, until soft, translucent and just beginning to colour at the edges, . You want them sweet, not browned — a pulao is not a neychoru.
- Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli and cook until the raw garlic smell has lifted, 90 seconds to .
- Add the drained rice and the crushed pepper. Stir gently with a flat turner for , until every grain is glossy and the rice smells toasted.
- Add the carrot and beans, the salt and the water. Bring to a full boil, then taste the water and adjust.
- Cover tightly, drop to the lowest flame, and cook undisturbed . At , lift the lid once and scatter the peas over the surface without stirring, then cover again.
- Rest off the heat, covered, . It is done when the rice is tender with no chalky core, the carrot batons still hold their shape under a fork, and no free water shows at the base of the pan. Fork through with the herbs and cashews.
Why this worksVegetables cut in batons have less surface area per gram than dice, so they lose less water into the pot and less texture to the steam. They also raise the dish's mass without raising its available carbohydrate much: 360 g of carrot, beans and peas adds about 24 g of net carbohydrate and 11 g of fibre, so the same rice arrives on a plate of far lower energy density.
Sourcing note
See R017 for jeerakasala. Frozen green peas are entirely fine here and often sweeter than fresh ones that have travelled; add them in the last 5 minutes rather than at the start. Where fresh green beans are poor, use 120 g of frozen French beans, or 150 g of cauliflower in small florets, which holds up better than either.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 51.1 g of net carbohydrate for a one-pot main is moderate, and 6.1 g of fibre and 8.2 g of protein alongside it slow the whole thing down. The peas are doing real work here: 120 g of green peas is more than the 50 g of cooked pulse this book asks for on a rice plate.
Blood pressure: 240 mg per portion, and the carrots contribute a surprising 20 mg of it. Halve the M07 for about 170 mg.
Cholesterol: 3.7 g of saturated fat, most of it from 12 g of coconut oil across four people. Swap to gingelly oil for about 1.6 g and a nuttier, less sweet pot.
Swap it
Jeerakasala → matta. Increase water to 500 ml and cooking time to 20–25 minutes; add the vegetables at the 10-minute mark instead of the start, or they overcook.
Green peas → 120 g cooked vanpayar or kadala, folded through at step 8. Fibre goes up by about 2 g a portion and the dish becomes noticeably more filling.
Coconut oil → gingelly (sesame) oil. Saturated fat halves; the aroma turns nutty and slightly darker, which suits this dish well. (Allergen: this swap introduces sesame.)
No cashews → 16 g roasted peanuts, or nothing at all. Without them the pulao is leaner and less festive. (Allergen: this swap introduces peanuts.)
Make ahead · store · freeze
The vegetables can be cut a day ahead and kept in a closed box in the fridge. Fridge 24 hours, chilled within 1 hour of cooking. Freeze 1 month; the carrots come back a little softer and the peas are unaffected. Reheat once, covered, with a tablespoon of water per portion, until steaming hot throughout.
Leftovers
Cold pulao with a spoonful of curd and a squeeze of lime is a decent packed lunch. Or thin it with 200 ml water and a pinch of pepper into a rough vegetable kanji.
Troubleshooting
Vegetables mushy, rice fine: they were diced rather than cut in batons, or the peas went in at the start. Batons, and peas at 9 minutes.
Rice cooked, vegetables still hard: the carrot was cut too thick. Pencil thickness is the target; anything above 1 cm needs a 5-minute head start in the pan.
Watery base: too much water for the vegetables' own moisture. Frozen vegetables release liquid, so cut the water to 340 ml when you use them.
Serve with
R081 Moru Curry · R087 Moru Kachiyathu · R083 Kumbalanga Pulissery · a pachadi from Chapter 23
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