Green Vegetable Rice Recipe

Ingredients 

Basmati rice - 1 cup
Onion - 2 medium size (cut lengthwise)
Ginger finely chopped - 1 tsp
Green chilli - 2 slit or chilli powder -1 tsp flat
Mixed vegetables - 1 cup ( you can use a mix of beans, carrot, peas and potato)
Mint leaves - fistful
Coriander leaves - few
Fresh lemon juice -1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For the seasoning

Oil - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Cardamom -1 (optional)

Preparation

Soak basmati rice for 15 minutes. Drain the water completely and keep it aside.

Chop all the vegetables lengthwise. I used 4-5 beans, 1 small potato, 1 medium sized carrot, 1/4 cup peas and 3-4 cauliflower florets- together it was a little more than 1 cup.

Wash and chop mint and coriander leaves.

Method

Heat oil in a pan, add the ingredients mentioned under seasoning. Saute for a few seconds and then add onion, green chilli and ginger.

Saute until onions turn pink, then add all the vegetables. (I will make one thing clear here - in case if you going to prepare this in a pressure cooker, you can add the vegetables raw. If you are going to cook in a pan with lid as I have done below, par boil the vegetables slightly and then add)

Saute the vegetables for 2-3 seconds. Then add chopped mint and coriander leaves. Mix well.
Add drained rice, 2 cups of hot water, lemon juice, salt needed (approximately 2 tsp flat) and bring it to boil.
Once it starts boiling, reduce the flame, cover it with a lid and cook until the rice is done. Fluff it with a fork and serve hot.
You can have any raita / pachadi or chips or salad or any tomato based gravy like matar paneer, aloo gobhi, paneer butter masala or instant potato gravy or paneer capsicum gravy as a side dish.

How to cook this vegetable rice in pressure cooker - After you add water to the rice, transfer the contents to a pressure cooker and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Once the pressure subsides, open and serve hot.

How to cook directly in pressure cooker or pressure pan -You can prepare this directly in the pressure pan also. In that case, after adding water to the rice, close the cooker without weight. Once rice is half cooked, stir the contents and close it with weight. Keep on low flame for 4-5 minutes and switch it off. Open after the pressure subsides.