Quick,100% whole grain, one pot meal and discovering a new tadka!

This is a quick post -- not a lot of time to blog, but just *have to* share this recipe.

The goodness of whole grain is something thats been discussed a lot across several food blogs. Notably, the folks at jugalbandi have several posts and 'whole grains' are 'flavor of the month' at onehotstove.

This dish can obviously be classified as a pulao or khichadi - it could also be called a rice and lentil 'stuffing' of sorts perhaps, so I'm going to leave it nameless for a while. If you're inspired to name it -hey, feel free to do so (and let me know via the comment box) :)

Aromatic Brown rice-lentil-buckwheat pulao? Here goes:




Whats in it:

1/2 cup long grain brown rice (I used thai jasmine)
2/3 cup साबुत मसूर or whole lentils (I used the french green variety)
1/2 cup Toasted Buckwheat or Kasha
3 cups water

Veggies : I used -
Mirepoix - medium sized yellow onion, 1 large carrot diced into big chunks, 2 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 a head of broccoli - seperated into inch sized florets and stalks chopped into 1/2 inch thick pieces

The awesome tadka I serendipitously discovered:
1 to 2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
1 badi elaichi/ black cardamom
2 bayleaves or 1 tejpatta
1 inch piece fresh ginger root grated
3 hot green chillies (or adjust to your desired heat level)
pinch turmeric
2 tsp oil

Spices: 1/2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder, salt to taste, 1 tsp Kitchen king masala (optional)



Since this is a 'quick' dish, it is made in the pressure cooker.
Wash the grains , drain and keep aside. You can soak the brown rice for 5-10 minutes beforehand of you desire.

Start with 2 tsp oil, add the fennel, black cardamom, bay leaves, ginger chillies and turmeric. Once the fennel seems to swell and the tadka starts to smell good (should take about 20 seconds if the oil was hot enough) -- add the onions and celery. Saute for a minute, and add the whole grains. Saute for another minute and add 2 cups water. Add the salt, chilli powder and Kitchen-king masala (you can substitute your favorite spice blend, or omit it altogether) Cover the pressure cooker and cook to two whistles on medium high heat.

Quickly release pressure by pulling up the gauge with a long spoon r spatula. Open the cooker and add the carrots and broccoli and the third cup of water**. Cover again and cook for another whistle. This time, let the pressure release on its own.

Open cooker, smell the goodness, and enjoy with cool yogurt and a hot pickle.

** Whether to add the third cup of water (you may need less or more than a cup) depends on the specific quality of rice and lentils you're using to make this dish. I added the carrots and broccoli later to prevent them from melting into mush. You could just nuke them separately and add them in the end if you want them to retain some bite.

Verdict: very hearty and filling. The tadka was a real revelation to me - I use jeera(cumin) and ajwain(carrom seed) frequently, but saunf -not so much! It's sweet flavour combines very well with the bay leaf. The ginger and black cardamom add the robust notes. It was nice to completely avoid the cloves and cinnamon in this one. The mirepoix adds another subtle layer of flavor as well.

These amounts made for four meals for a hungry grad student. It would probably serve six people as a side in a regular meal.

I did a back-of-the-envelope nutritional calculation: 1160 calories in the whole pot /4 servings = 290 calories per serving, with 12.5 g of dietary fiber and 11.6 g protein per serving. Thats good, right? :)