Peas Rice: Matar Ke Chawal: Peas Pulav

So it was the hottest day of the year in London yesterday. People were freaking out, no one was happy with the sunshine. What do people want, I asked myself? When it is raining they sulk about it; when it is cold and windy they complain about it and yesterday they had problems with sunny weather too. No one seemed happy and everyone was just frowning-boy oh boy it is sooo hot!. Another funny thing, my Indian friends were going crazy too. Don’t you come from a place where it is more 40 degrees? How can they not tolerate 30C? Anyways moving on, I totally loved crisp clear sky, lots of sunshine and cold water shower for a change :)

Those of you follow me on instagram would know, I treated myself with some beautiful lilies and these lilies are now blooming, giving amazing fragrance in my hall. That fresh aroma, pink beauties and lots of sunshine helped me to complete this book. By the end of the day I was totally relaxed but was in no mood to slave myself in the kitchen cooking some elaborate meal. It had to be something quick and not spicy or hot.

Yeah yeah, pasta was my choice too, but Mr. Husband had pasta in lunch so I knew he wouldn’t eat it. So I did some quick search on my blog and decided to do something with rice. Rice and lentils. Daal Chawal. Simple yellow daal (no onion or garlic) just pressure cooked. For rice I made Matar Pulav. Green Peas Rice. Ah the comfort food!

What to pair with Peas Rice? Check these out:

Panchmel Dal

Simple Kadhi

Lehsuni Daal

Daal Makhani

Green Peas Rice or Matar Ke Chawal is one step ahead from the very basic jeera rice. I would say it is one beautiful rice dish but with least efforts. Just throw in some frozen peas, cooked rice, some spices and you are done. It is like a quick makeover or leftover rice magic too, infact leftover rice works perfectly fine :). I tried to keep it simple with fragrant whole spices.

There are many variations you can do in this recipe. You can add other veggies such as potatoes, capsicum, carrots, beans, onion and what not. In that case it will be very much like veg pulav which is a meal in itself, just pair it up with any riata. Then, you can also use Indian spices like turmeric (for colour) or red chilli powder. Some people also like to add nuts such as cashews (kaju) or raisins (kismis). As mentioned already, I crafted it real simple.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice

1/2 cup green peas/matar

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

4 cloves/laung

2 black peppercorns/kali mirch

2 bay leaf/tej patta

1 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera

1 tablespoons ghee or oil

Method:

Heat oil in wok or a pan. When oil gets hot, add bay leaf, cloves and peppercorns. Roast for 5 seconds.

Add cumin seeds. Let it crackle. Reduce heat to low.

Add ginger garlic paste. Sauté it for 1 minute.

To it add frozen peas. Cook till peas get soft.

Mix in rice. Stir properly. Do not apply pressure, else rice will get mushy.

Cover and let it sit for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.

Notes:

You can omit ginger garlic paste.

If using fresh peas, boil it before using.

See all instructions on how to cook rice here.

Use a good quality indian basmati rice for best results. I used Tilda Basmati Rice.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side with any indian curries.

Serve with lentils and dry curries.

Mix with salad, chutneys and stuff in tacos or burritos.