Peas pulao or matar pulao is the classic Indian rice pilaf. Basmati rice is cooked with whole spices and green peas. It tastes delicious when fresh green peas are used. Here, I used frozen peas.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups basmati rice
- 2 to 2.5 cups green peas
- 1.5 tbsp Shahi jeera (use regular cumin seeds if shahi jeera is not available)
- 3-4 chopped green chilies
- 1-inch ginger or 1 tsp paste
- Fistful cashews
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 1-2 cinnamon pieces
- 6-7 cloves
- 12-15 black peppercorns
- 3 black cardamoms (peel and use seeds)
- 1 cup finely chopped onions
- Salt
- Oil + butter/ghee
- ½ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method:
- Wash rice, drain water and keep it aside
- In a pan, add oil and ghee and heat it
- Add shahi jeera. It gives rich taste to pulao
- Add dry spices-bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon
- Once spices start changing color slightly, add cashews and roast them until golden
- Add chopped green chili pieces and cook for 30 seconds
- Then add chopped onions and garlic paste
- Onions give nice taste and adds moisture to pulao
- Saute onions until they turn golden
- Add turmeric powder (optional) and then frozen peas
- Mix, cover and cook for 2 minutes
- Lastly, add drained rice and mix well
- Cook for 1-2 minutes so that rice gets all the flavors of spices
- You can add water and continue to cook on stove top
- Here, I used Instant pot, so I transferred the mixture to another pot
- Add water (1:2, so I added 4 cups of water)
- Add salt and lemon juice
- Mix and cook in Ipot
- You can garnish it with chopped cilantro and serve hot.
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