“Soya Chunks Veg. Green Pulav” served with Rajma / Red Bean Curry … An awesome combo of dishes … Soya Chunks are high in protein and have zero fat content and is a good substitute for meat at times … I remember during our college tour days the cooks had often used soya chunks in preparation of dishes and I simply loved them, specially in pulavs … Do try out this combo dish during Diwali and Enjoy with family and friends … You can add in Raita and its complete … Yummy Yumz …....
** I am always looking forward to preparing pulavs / biryani in different ways with different combinations. Addition of different types of veggies, meat, pulses anything and I am game for it. Being South Indian my heart always yearns for dishes prepared out of rice. Though I do love roti or parthas for curries, I must say I am partial to rice dishes. I have nostalgic memories of college days when I went with friends on Indian tours conducted by our college for around 3 weeks at a stretch. The group was large and we had a cook who traveled with us. My father being a businessman could never much take us to hill stations or other places being busy and always was on business tour. But being a gem of a man, he never wanted us children to miss out on the small pleasures of life. Our family being a big movie buff, he always took us for movies and during my childhood, there is no movie that I have not seen.
** When our college started conducting long tours of 3 weeks, initially though my father was a bit skeptical about it, he allowed us to enjoy them after he was convinced of our safety. The tours were conducted by a Gujarati person who was based in Bombay but who himself accompanied the troupe and saw to it that there was no problem whatsoever. So did 2 Nuns from our Convent College. I think I forgot to mention that my Schooling and College was done at St. Agnes, one of the Best Educational institute of Mangalore. I am so thankful for my father, for enrolling me there, as today, I am what I am … is partly because of the good habits they instilled in me. I picked the habit of reading, discipline and giving respect to young and old alike from them. My handwriting or my writing skills are all because of the special guidance given to me when I joined midway a fresher to the school. I am always indebted to them.
** Coming back to pulav, green pulav is always prepared using finely ground coriander leaves and other leaves into a fine paste. This imparts a unique flavour to the pulav and the dish is almost taken to the biryani level. I prefer pulav’s to biryani as I find the latter a little bit tedious and time consuming. In all this is a lovely pulav with strong flavors and spiced rice along with soft and chunky soya chunks to munch on. I included a few veggies to make it a little bit more healthier, as I strongly feel veggies should be a part of daily diet. So the best way to incorporate them is by addition of the same to the dishes while preparing. You can include more veggies too like cauliflower, carrots, green peas etc. In which case you can slightly decrease the among of soya chunks. Do prepare this awesome pulav and Enjoy with your family and friends during function or on festive days. I served it with Rajma Curry, you can serve with curds or raita too.
** Ingredients :
Basmati Rice : 4 cups
Onion : 2-3 sliced lengthwise thinly.
Soya Chunks : 2 full cups
Capsicum : 2 large sized
Beetroot : 1 medium sized.
Lemon : 1 small sized.
Ghee / Oil : ½ - ¾ cup
Salt to taste
Water has required
** Green Masala Paste to be Ground to paste :
Coriander Leaves : 4 cups - only leaves.
Pudina Leaves : 1 cup - only leaves.
Green Chillies : 5-8 less spicy one’s
Ginger : 1 inch piece
Garlic : 10-12
Spices :
Cinnamon : 2” length 4-5 pieces.
Pepper Corns : ½ tsp
Cloves : 1 tsp
Green Cardamoms : 4-5 (cut into halves)
Black Cardamoms : 5-6 (cut into halves)
Crushed Jaivitri : ¼ tsp
Star anise : 1 – 2
Bay leaves : 2-3
Cashew Nuts : ½ cup halved
Haldi / Turmeric Powder : 1 tsp
** Note : I have used pressure cooker pan for preparing the pulav. I have found that this gives good results for soya chunks when cooked along with rice. In kadai method you have to sometimes add the soya chunks later on as they tend to soak up the water that is used for cooking and thus not giving sufficient water for the rice to get cooked. Having said this I have prepared the same in kadai too and have posted long back the method which is a little bit different from this one. There I had also fried the soya chunks in ghee, here I have not. For perfect results, I recommend you use pressure cooker pan. But if you still want to follow the kadai method you may do so, but ensure that you add in the soya chunks once the rice is cooked 75%.
** Wash and soak basmati rice in plenty of water for 25-30 mins. Then again wash, rinse and put it in a colander for the excess water to drain off. Leave it aside for at least 10 mins for the water to get completely drained off.
** Wash and soak the soya chunks in plenty of hot water to which a little bit of salt has been added. Cover and keep aside for 15 mins. Once they are fully soaked and doubled in size. Drain the water, wash in fresh water and squeeze out the water from the chunks and keep it aside ready.
** Green Masala Paste to be Ground : Pick, clean, wash and grind the coriander leaves, pudina leaves along with ginger, garlic and green chillies to a very fine paste with about half a cup of water. Keep this ready aside.
** Wash and cut the capsicum into medium sized square pieces. Discard the top stem portion and the inner seeds. Wash and keep this ready aside.
** Peel off the outer skin of the beetroot, cut them into small cubes, rinse and keep them ready aside.
** Peel off the skin of the onions and slice lengthwise into thin slices. Keep this also ready aside.
** Before proceeding to cook in pressure cooker pan, see to it that all the ingredients are arranged and done and also kept ready.
** Now in a thick bottomed pan, add in the ghee / oil. When hot, lower the heat and add in the cashew nuts and fry till they are slightly browned in colour. Remove and keep aside to garnish later on.
** Now in the same pan, lower the heat and add in, Pepper, Green Cardamoms, Cinnamon, Cloves, Black Cardamoms, Crushed Jaivitri, Star anise, Bay leaves, and fry for a few minutes.
** Now add in the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes or till translucent. Now add in the haldi powder and salt to taste and mix well. Add in cut capsicums, beetroot pieces and the ground green masala paste.
** Add in the prepared soya chunks to the above ingredients in the pressure pan. Mix all well, so that the masala are all coated well to the soya chunks and veggies. Finally add in the drained rice, add in the fried cashew nuts and and 7 cups of water. Squeeze in the juice of one lemon and mix well.
** Cover with the pressure cooker lid and cook the pulav on medium heat to 2 whistles. Once the it has reached the stage of 2 whistles, lower the heat to minimum and cook on low heat for 4- 5 mins. Now again increase the heat to high and once you get one whistle it is done. Off the gas flame and let the pressure cooker rest till the pressure gets released by itself.
** Once the pressure in the pan has been released completely, you will be able to remove the pressure cooker pan lid. Slowly open the lid and allow the steam to pass away. Do not stay too close. Keep the pan uncovered for at 10-15 minutes untouched for the heat within the cooked ingredients to settle. If you try stirring it immediately it will get mushy and mashed up. Once it cools down a little bit, then the pulav become lovely with each grains separate.
** “Soya Chunks Veg. Green Pulav” is done and ready to be served. This is a medium spicy pulav that can be made spicy by increasing the number of green chillies. In which case you can serve it with simple curd or raita. I had kept the spice level medium and served it with Rajma curry as showed in the picture above and it tasted wonderful. Though this pulav will taste yummy as it is too. You can carry this in your lunch box and enjoy with your colleagues on special occasions. You can prepare the same on special occasions and enjoy with your family and friends.
** For the Rajma / Red Bean Curry Recipe, Please follow the link given below …..
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