Ghee Rice with Vegetables

Ghee rice with vegetables is something that I tried sometime back. It is the regular ghee rice that we make, but I tweaked in some veggies to make it slightly healthy. It goes well with the Mutton Buhari I posted earlier. In many families, especially children (and sometimes adults), are very reluctant when it comes to eating vegetables. The best ways to make them eat vegetables are adding some vegetables to their favourite dish. If for little ones, try chopping them fine. This rice can simply served with curd, pickle and pappad as well.


Ingredients:
3 cups Basmati rice
6 Cups water (Refer notes)
½ cup chopped onion (3/4 of a medium size onion)
1 cup diced carrot (1 medium size)
1 cup beans cut into small rings
½ Tbsp Cumin seeds (Jeerakam)
6 cardamoms
7 cloves
2-3 small pieces of cinnamon sticks
3-7 Tbsp Vegetable oil (See notes)
1 Heaped Tbsp Clarified butter/ Desi Ghee (See notes)
Salt – as required

Preparation:
1.Wash the rice in several times to remove the starch, place it in a colander to remove all the water.

2. In a large, heavy base non-stick saucepan heat vegetable oil and ghee. When hot, add sliced onion and sauté just until soft and translucent. (Don’t let the onions turn golden or brown since it will effect the colour and flavour of the rice).

3. Add in the cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon sticks and sauté for a brief time, just until the aroma comes out.

4. Add in the chopped vegetables (Make sure it is completely moisture free; else use the kitchen towel to remove the excess moisture) and sauté for five minutes until the vegetables are coated in flavour infused oil.

5. Add in the rice and stir fry for another 5 minutes.

6. Add boiling water and salt and mix well. Let it boil in HIGH HEAT until almost all the water is evaporated. Stir a couple of times in between.

7. When you see no more water at the bottom of the saucepan, Close the lid tightly and cook on VERY LOW heat for 10-15 minutes or till done.

Notes:
1. You may use all ghee instead of mixing oil and ghee. You may use as little as you may wish or increase the amount. Normally in ghee rice, quite lot of ghee is added to bring that delicious aroma. But when it comes to the healthy thoughts, I always substitute a major portion with vegetable or coconut oil. In this recipe I have used a heaped tablespoon of ghee and 3 table spoon of vegetable oil. I have used very much less than what is required.

2. In step 4, you can add vegetables along with rice and sauté for a good 8-10minutes on medium heat until all the rice and vegetables are coated with oil.

3. Another important thing to note is if you are planning to soak the rice, wash the rice well until you get clear water, and the starch is all washed out. Soak it for ½ - 1 hour. Use 1 ½ cup of water for 1 cup of rice if you are soaking the rice. So for this recipe you will need 4 ½ cups of water.