I love to make various variations of rice like tomato rice, lemon rice, tamarind rice, spicy Mexican rice, jeera rice, veg tehari and many more. This is because I love to team them with some form of protein for a delicious lunch or dinner. Mostly, I make chicken steaks or marinated prawns along with some sauteed veggies to go with these. But sometimes I serve them with a veg raita and papad. Simple delicious meal! Mint rice or mint pulao also known as pudina rice is really easy to make and does not take much time either. Perfect for Sunday lunches or brunches.

Here is my recipe:

Mint Pulao | Mint Rice Recipe

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

This is a one pot rice dish that goes really well with raita, curry or stew.

Author: Rachna Parmar

Recipe type: Rice Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups basmati rice
• For mint paste
• 1 cup mint leaves
• ½ cup coriander leaves
• 3-4 green chillies
• 1 medium onion
• 1 inch piece ginger
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• Dry garam masala
• 10 black pepper corns
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 green cardamom
• 1 small cinnamon piece
• 3 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small mace
• 2 tbsp. ghee or clarified butter
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice

Instructions

1. Wash the rice and soak it in water for 15-20 minutes.
2. Take all the ingredients of mint paste in a blender and blend to a fine paste.
3. Take ghee in a pan and heat it.
4. Add cumin seeds along with the other dry garam masala and allow to cook for about 2 minutes.
5. Now add the mint paste to the ghee and spices and allow to cook for about 3-4 minutes.
6. Now tip in the rice along with water and salt.
7. Mix well and allow it to cook till the water is completely dissolved and the rice is fluffy not mushy.
8. Take off the fire and add lemon juice and mix well.
9. Serve hot with the curry of your choice, raita or just grilled chicken breast steaks as I do. It is delicious.

Notes

To avoid overcooking your rice, I normally add lesser quantity of water and when most of it has cooked, I add a little more if it looks dry.

This way you avoid adding extra water that will turn your rice a gooey mess.

You can skip onion and ginger garlic paste if you like but it does affect the taste.

Don't use too much mint as it can tend to leave a bitter aftertaste. Hence use a loosely packed cup of mint leaves.

I cook in a rice cooker for even better results though a pan is perfectly fine.

You can use oil though use of ghee enhances the taste.

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To make it richer, you can add some fried cashews to the rice. You can also add veggies like green beans, carrots, peas, broccoli etc. if you like. But remember that the taste of mint is subtle. Don’t add very strong tasting ingredients with it.

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