Beetroot Carrot Pulao

My family members prefer to have pulao or fried rice every third or fourth day. So I prepare in different colours and taste. Some people including children don’t like beetroot either because of its colour or its sweet taste.

But Beetroot Carrot Pulao tastes nice and is easy to cook. It is suitable for lunch boxes also.

Beetroot is known as Chukander and Carrot is known as Gajar in Hindi.

Cooking time: 30 minutes approximately

Ingredients

• Basmati or any rice – 2 cup
• Beetroot chopped – 1 cup
• Carrot chopped – ½ cup
• Potato chopped – ½ cup
• Frozen peas – ½ cup
• Onion (chopped) – 1 no
• Tomato (chopped) – 1 no
• Ginger garlic paste – 1 table spoon
• Red chilli powder– 1 tea spoon
• Turmeric powder– ¼ tea spoon
• Coriander powder – 2 tea spoon
• Garam masala powder – ½ tea spoon
• Lemon juice – 1 table spoon
• Coriander/mint leaves – few
• Salt – as per taste
• For seasoning
  • Bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves – few
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tea spoon
  • Oil – 2 table spoon

Method

• Soak rice for 15 minutes and then drain water.

• Heat a cooker with oil and do the seasoning; add onion and fry till golden colour.

• Then add ginger garlic paste, cut tomatoes and fry for few minutes; now add all chopped veggie, mint leaves, coriander leaves and fry for few minutes.

• Add all dry spices and fry for few seconds.

• Then add drained rice and fry for few minutes carefully without fragmenting rice.

• Now add water (for 1 cup of basmati rice, I used 1½ cup water), salt and lemon juice; pressure cook as you do for any other fried rice (I put the weight after  steam comes out fully and then cook for 5 minutes in low flame); open the cooker after steam releases fully on its own; open and mix gently.

• Serve hot with raitha (Tomato Onion Raitha is shown here).

Tips

• Pressure cooking time varies with the type of cooker, type of rice and soaking time.