Palak Channa Pulav / Spinach Chickpea Pulav – a healthy, flavourful and nutritious meal perfect for lunch boxes and travel. Spinach is known for its rich nutrients and minerals. Chickpeas are a nutrient dense food packed with protein, dietary fibre, folate and other minerals. A combination of spinach and chickpeas along with rice makes it a one pot balanced meal. This flavourful pulav is prepared by tossing the cooked rice along with sautéed onions, tomatoes, spinach, pressure cooked chickpeas and few spice powders & masala paste. This palak channa pulav can be served with onion or cucumber raita.
Preparation time : 12 hours
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serving: 2
Ingredients:
| Basmati rice | 1 cup |
| Palak / Spinach (finely chopped) | 1 cup |
| Chickpeas / kabuli channa | 3/4 th cup |
| Oil | 3 to 4 teaspoon |
| Ghee | 3 teaspoon |
| Cinnamon stick | 1 |
| Cloves | 3 to 4 |
| Bay leaf | 2 |
| Onion | 1 medium size |
| Tomato | 1/2 |
| Turmeric powder | 1 teaspoon |
| Kashmiri chilli powder | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Channa masala | 1/2 teaspoon |
| Salt | to taste |
To grind:
| Onion | 1/2 |
| Garlic | 3 cloves |
| Ginger | 1 inch piece |
| Green chilli | 2 to 3 |
Instructions:
- Soak 3/4 th cup chickpeas / kabuli channa in water overnight. After soaking, pressure cook the chickpeas for 3 whistles. Drain the water and keep it aside.
- Wash and pressure cook the rice in the ratio 1:2 (rice : water). Spread it on a plate and let it cool so that the grains are separate. Add a teaspoon of oil.
- Finely chop the palak / spinach leaves. Finely chop 1 onion and 1 tomato and keep aside for sautéing.
- To grind – In a mixer jar / blender, add 1/2 onion (chopped), 1 inch piece ginger, 3 garlic cloves, 2 to 3 green chillies. Grind this to a smooth paste without adding water.
- In a heavy bottom pan, add 3 to 4 teaspoons of oil and 3 teaspoons of ghee. When the oil is warm enough, add 1 stick cinnamon, 3 to 4 cloves and 2 bayleaves. Sauté for few seconds until it leaves a good aroma. Now add 1 chopped onion and sauté until it becomes transparent. Add the ground onion-ginger-garlic-chilli paste to this and stir continuously until the oil separates from the pan. Add chopped tomato (1/2 tomato) and sauté until the tomato turns soft and mushy. At this stage, if the pan is too dry, add 1 to 2 teaspoon oil or ghee.
- Add the finely chopped palak / spinach leaves and cook for a minute or so until all the palak leaves shrink. Cook until there is no moisture and until the oil separates on the edges of the pan.
- Once the palak / spinach is cooked well, add 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 1/2 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder and 1/2 teaspoon channa masala. Reduce the heat to low and sauté for few seconds. Do not allow the masalas to get burnt.
- Now add the pressure cooked channa / chickpeas. Add salt. Mix thoroughly so that the masala paste and spice powders are evenly distributed.
- Add the cooked basmati rice to the above contents and reduce the heat to low. Mix gently without breaking the rice grains. Close the pan with a lid and simmer for about a minute . This will allow the rice to absorb all the masala flavours. Switch off the stove.
- Serve palak channa pulav with raita of your choice.
Notes:
- If you are using regular chilli powder instead of kashmiri chilli powder, then adjust the amount as per your preference. Kashmiri chilli powder is less spicy than the regular chilli powder.
- If you prefer a slight sour taste, then squeeze half lime before serving.
- Variation – Add panner cubes after sautéing the tomatoes.
Sowmya's Spicy Corner 