30 min Indian Pulao Rice | Vegan, Gluten-Free

I was feeling a bit under the weather and tired last weekend, and felt like eating some Indian food. We do order some a few times a year, but to be honest, it does get a bit expensive and we end up having so much food that we stretch it over 3-4 meals and by the end, I am so sick of it, I can’t stand it! haha Plus, whenever we order, it always takes over an hour to get here…

So I decided that I should make some myself, using organic ingredients I had, and it would be much healthier since I used brown basmati rice instead of white, and I can control exactly what else would go in it (a lot of take-outs like Indian and Chinese foods use MSG on top of other not-so-good ingredients). The best part of this was that I was all done and eating before we would’ve had our food if I had ordered delivery!

I didn’t have any Garam Masala spice, so I went online to look at what exactly is in there, and noticed that my “Spice cake” mix was exactly the same, except it had allspice extra, but I thought Oh well! let’s give it a try. And it worked. The only spice I didn’t have was cardamom, which I’d suggest adding in there, although it was delicious without. You should never stop yourself from trying a recipe, even if you don’t have all of the ingredients. Sometimes it turns out awesome. And sometimes, not-so-awesome. But you know what? it’s only one meal, and it’s almost impossible to mess up a meal badly enough that you can’t eat it (unless you drop the entire jar of salt in there, or you burn the crap out of the dish. haha).

This is a vegan dish, but if you’d like to add a couple of sausages (organic grass-fed meat), chopped in tiny pieces, it tastes really yummy too.

Yum yum!

Enjoy!!!

ECP xo

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No need for take-out! 30 min Indian Pulao Rice | Vegan, Gluten-Free

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 4 servings

No need for take-out with this healthy recipe for a 30 min Indian pulao rice dish. can be made vegan or with added shrimps or meat if desired.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup brown basmati rice
• 1/2 organic red pepper chopped
• 1 onion (large) minced
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 ginger peeled and minced
• 2 carrots (large) washed, cut in small cubes or slices
• 8 oz organic mushrooms washed, sliced
• 1 organic tomato washed and cut in small cubes
• 1 cup organic baby spinach washed
• 398 ml chickpeas 1 regular size can
• 1/3 cup peas frozen
• 1 tsp turmeric ground
• 1 tsp cumin ground
• 1 tsp coriander ground
• 1/8 tsp cayenne ground
• 5 whole cardamom seeds
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 3 cups filtered water
• extra-virgin extra-virgin for cooking
• 1 tsp unrefined sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper

Instructions

1. Cut the onion and carrots. Warm a large pan over medium heat. While that is heating up, continue cutting the rest of the vegetables (pepper, mushrooms, garlic).
2. Once the pan is hot, pour a generous amount of olive oil and put the vegetables in (except the tomato, garlic, spinach and chickpeas), stirring often, until nicely roasted (probably 7-8 minutes).
3. Add all the spices (except salt) and stir well for 15-20 seconds, to make sure the spices develop their flavours. Then add the tomato and garlic for a few minutes and then add the rice, water, and chickpeas, stir, cover and reduce temperature a bit, just under medium.
4. Let it cook, covered, for about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. If the water evaporates too quickly, add a bit more water so that it doesn't burn at the bottom. A few minutes before the end, throw in the spinach. Add the salt and pepper before serving.

Note: I do not believe anyone should worry about counting calories, but here is the nutritional information for one serving
Calories: 495kcal | Fat: 5g | Sodium: 639mg | Potassium: 1062mg | Carbohydrates: 96g | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 11g | Protein: 18g | Vitamin A: 6760% | Vitamin C: 37.1% | Calcium: 127% | Iron: 5.8%