There are two kinds of cooks. Those who plan ahead, and those who open the refrigerator when they are hungry and wonder what they should make. I belong to the second category. I have, believe it or not, had to train myself to plan ahead, because as a result of my nature, I ended up never getting to make things like idly, or anything that needed planning.

Anyway, this dish came about as a result of exactly that lack of planning. I was visiting my sister, it was a lazy afternoon and suddenly we realized that we didn’t have a plan. It turned out that there was some soaked kala chana. And rice. I was too lazy to make kadala curry AND rice. So I just threw everything into one pot. We liked the result so much that I had to note the recipe down and email it to everyone 😀

Serves 2
Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

1 cup kala chana
1 cup rice
1 cup chopped vegetables – baby corn, potato, carrot
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp chopped green chili
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 tsp chopped garlic
½ tsp haldi/ turmeric powder
¼ tsp chili powder
½ tsp dhania/  coriander powder
2 sprigs curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
¼ cup fresh coconut, grated
2 tbsp coriander leaves
1 tbsp coconut oil or ghee

Method:

Soak overnight, and pressure cook kala chana in 2-3 cups water for 10 min.

Drain and reserve the water.

In a pressure cooker, heat oil or ghee, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped ginger and garlic, and green chili. Add onion.

Add the vegetables and chana and cook for a couple of min, then add the rice. Add 2 cups water (can use the water in which the chana was cooking), salt, haldi, chili and coriander powder. Pressure cook for 5 min.

When done, add grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves. Yummy pulao is ready!!