I can't rave enough about this side. It's
* **Easy:** Once you get the ingredients stocked, and once you prepare this dish a few times, it becomes almost trivial to make any amount of it on a whim.
* **Cheap:** there's no fancy or fresh ingredients necessary.
* **Versatile:** It strikes a balance between refreshing and indulgent: neutral enough to be compatible with any savory flavor profile, but flavorful enough to add a mouth-watering fragrance that elevates whatever dish it's paired with.
* **Healthy:** the peas add a significant amount of nutrients and protein to what might otherwise be plain rice. When paired with any chunk of protein, it creates a complete meal.
* **Meal-preppable:** Stored in an airtight container in a fridge, the pulao will last up to five days or so, and the texture will essentially be just as good every time it's reheated.
# Ingredients
- [ ] 1 cup of basmati rice
- [ ] ~ 3 handfuls of peas (frozen is fine)
- [ ] 1/2 cup of coconut milk
- [ ] 1 1/2 cups of water
- [ ] A bit of oil (I use avocado)
- [ ] Whole spices
- [ ] Cumin seeds
- [ ] Bay leaves
- [ ] Cinnamon stick
- [ ] Whole pepper
- [ ] Cardamom pods (a couple)
- [ ] Cloves (a couple)
- [ ] Salt
- [ ] A few mint leaves (optional)
- [ ] ~ 1 tbsp of ghee/ butter (optional)
# Tools
- [ ] A medium-sized pot with a lid
- [ ] Something to stir the pot with
# Steps
1. **Soak:** Rinse and soak the rice in water while you do the rest of the steps. Get all the ingredients out onto the counter and ready-to-use.
2. **Temper:** Add all the whole spices with a splash of oil and temper them on medium heat for five minutes or so - just get them hot enough to be a bit more aromatic; err on the side of lower temp to reduce the risk of burning them - they'll cook into the rice just fine.
3. **Sauté:** Increase the heat to medium-high, throw the peas into the pot and sauté them for like 3-5 minutes.
4. **Toast:** Decrease the heat to medium-low, throw the rice and few (not all) of the mint leaves into the pot and continue sautéing for another few minutes. You're sort of "toasting" the rice here.
5. **Boil:** Add the coconut milk, water, and a teaspoon or so of salt - it doesn't need to be too salty, just enough so that you can taste it in the water. Once you've mixed everything, give the water a taste so you have a "baseline" of how this taste can correlate with the final outcome; in future iterations, you can use this to adjust adding any other spices. Bring this to a boil - feel free to add enough water to ensure the rice is covered. Here, you can optionally stir in a bit of ghee or butter to ensure that the bottom of the rice doesn't get stuck to the pot.
6. **Simmer:** Once it gets to whatever you'd consider typically boiling, cover it with a lid and let it simmer on low for 25 minutes.
7. **Fluff:** Once time is up, take a large wooden fork or rice spoon and gently mix/ fluff up your delightfully fragrant peas pulao. You may optionally serve this with a few mint leaves as pictured above.
> [!tip] Summary: soak, temper, sauté, toast, boil, simmer, and fluff